Shocking news: the government makes medical care subject to payment

The government plans to levy the cost of medical treatment from those, whose social security is not paid – reports Népszava.  To this day, people only had to pay their outstanding contributions, but they will have to pay the full bill from now on.

Those, who do not have social security, will have to pay a crazy amount of money for medical care. According to the data of the National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary, every 20^th inhabitant of Hungary is short of insurance, which means that “the light turns red” for 400,000 Hungarians when it comes to checking their social security number.

This light turns red on the general practitioner’s screen if there is neither an employer to pay the insurance nor exists an individual agreement with the tax authority. The social security is paid for children, pensioners, those who are receiving rehabilitation contribution and for others in need by the general government deficit, which is a couple of euros less than the amount one has to pay individually. This is approximately 22.6 € per month.

It often happens that even though one has a job with access to social security, the employer is not contributing. The National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary makes a list for the tax authority of those treated who have the “red light” next to their name. They get an authority to make them pay for the services. Népszava gained access to the so-called salad-law draft, which would significantly tighten the current rule only allowing to levy the unpaid contribution for the last five years. The plan says:

“Once the fund became aware of anyone taking the service without their social security paid, one may be required to pay it back in five years.”

An average treatment in a hospital costs approximately 600 €, while the fund pays 1155 € to treat a patient who had a heart attack.

“If this law is accepted by the legislators, it will mean the end of the current solidarity based social security system and many people will go to seed.” – said Annamária Karátsonyi,

economist and honorary associate professor of the Corvinus University. The rich could easily get out of the system as they could afford to pay for the healthcare, but this will certainly reduce the public funds available to be spent on treatment. Those, who would pay for the service with cash, will be obliged to pay only the amount of money that the public financing body pays, which is clearly not enough for most of the therapies.