Bulgaria's Health Insurance Fund To End 2016 With BGN 50 M Deficit

The National Health Insurance Fund (NZOK) will end 2016 with a deficit of about BGN 50 M, which it will transfer and pay via the budget next year.

This will burden additionally the 2017 budget which will be insufficient to cover hospitals’ expenses, medicines, payments to foreign health funds etc.

The draft budget of NZOK, which was approved by the Supervisory Board of NZOK on Monday, forecasts expenditures to the amount of BGN 3.032 B, compared to expected real expenditures by the end of 2016 of BGN 3.3 B.

By comparison, expenditures for 2016 were set to be BGN 2.8 B.

Despite the fact that there is an allocated increase of BGN 200 M for 2017, compared to 2016, the budget for next year forecasts lower expenditures than the ones that will be incurred in reality in 2017 for hospital assistance, medicine expenditures etc.

At the same time, the increase for payments to foreign health funds is merely symbolic. NZOK owes considerable amounts to foreign funds due to the health treatment of Bulgarians in the EU.