Hungary’s current health care system is inoperative, Hospital Association President Jenő Rácz said on radio recently.
By the end of the year, hospitals will accumulate an estimated Ft 90 billion (€327.5 million) in debts. Rácz stressed the same mistake that was made early this year should not be made again next year. Then, surplus money got into the system which was used to pay off debt, but the former government was afraid to touch basic structural problems.
Rácz thinks people should not be lied to; they must accept that the current system cannot be financed from the money available. He also thinks society should define what it expects from health care and what it is ready to sacrifice for the goals. [inforadio.hu]
Maybe a small fee, like 500 HUF, to be paid each time you see a GP-type of Doctor, and 1000 HUF when seeing a Specialist?
This will decrease the number of visits per year and create more control who is running around in hospitals (they actually enforced that rule last time, you needed to have a valid ticket to get inside, taking away much of people just there trying to steal)
These 2 things will create possibilities to do other changes, given the average high number of Doctor-visits in Hungary
And also when you go to a GP-Doctor he/she can only write 1 months worth of prescriptions of pills. In my family we have 4 chronic ill persons, who need a stable supply of different pills each day
This rule makes it necessary for 4 people to see their GP each month, making up for 48 visits every year
For some pills you need a special prescription from a Specialist Doctor, which is valid 6-18 months (depending the area), so then we speak about 12-15 visits every year
No wonder Hungary needs a lot of Doctors…
Sweden does it differently:
* A Doctor writes a prescription for 3 months (but has to be taken out 3*1 months, meaning the same prescription is re-used 2 more times)
This means just 4 visits per year for chronic ill people
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* The Doctor writes whatever pills he and the wants, regardless the cost
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* At the *time* you pick up your pills you are only offered the cheapest generic alternative available today. If you want to have what the Doctor wrote, you pay the *difference*, which sometimes can be ridiculous low
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* Finally Sweden has a cap per year how much generic pills and visit-fees and all the other fees you need to pay to see a Doctor. When you reached this amount, the rest of the year is free
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To do all this Sweden has implemented a nice IT-system, which is still missing in Hungary, even after all the failed IT-projects OEP started
.
This has made it possible for Sweden to lowered their cost for Health Care, including the money paid to the Pills Industry
A lot less bureaucraty, a lot more flexibility in thinking, anticipating and virtual thinking, planning instead of writing ‘jegyzökönyvek’ will assumably save this country from going under and suffocating in rules, xx-times modified laws that no-one understands or know how to implement anymore, and a goodbye to the €USSR. A child can see that the representation of hungarian activities all around Europe has been deminished.
It is a fact that allmost 90% of my time is wasted to administrative work, keeping me from being a productive -and though effordable- geriatric.
Hungary -since many years- has taken the wrong turn, and will pay with total bankrupcy. Mark my words ! Just a doctor
@Viking:
Interesting to read that about Sweden – Germany has a similar system but you also pay 10 € for each quarter of the year if you visit your family doctor. If he sends you to a specialist, that’s free, but if you just walk in – then you pay another 10 € …
My wife visited her doctor in Héviz this morning – there were relatively few people waiting, usually in winter the place is crowded …
Something has to be done – medical costs are getting too high for many people.
Maybe Orbàn’s government will introduce that pensioner’s bill that went around Germany last year as a joke about the “pensioners’ glut”:
From January 1, pensioners will be allowed to cross red traffic lights – and if that doesn’t help, starting in 2012 they will be forced to cross when the lights are red …
The American system is even better than the Swedish. You see your doctor twice a year, he does a routine checkup, which may include EKG and other tests. He writes prescriptions for 6 months.
If you for some reason run out, you simply call him, he calls the pharmacy, you pick it up at your local drive thru drug store.
In health care hell (Hungary) the doctor has to send you to a specialist. You call for an appointment, which can be two months in the future. You go to the specialist for your 11AM appointment, wait patiently in the crowded waiting room, spend your time catching the flu.
The nurse comes out, to call the 11AM people. There are about 20 of them. So you’ll keep waiting and catching more airborne viruses.
Finally you get in, the specialist signs the papers, and you can go back to your GP to waste more of your and the doc’s time. If you survived all this, you walk into the crowded pharmacy, wait some more. The pills you went through all this trouble is of course out of stock.
Hungarian health system is not “near breaking point” it’s broken. It’s not a matter of money alone to fix it. It’s better allocation of resources, less bureaucracy, less wasting of everyone’s time. We don’t need more malls, we need American style drug store chains, readily available generic drugs, and so on. You can buy all non-prescription drugs in supermarkets, and if all you need is a couple of Tylenols or Aspirins, you can get them at any gas station or convenience store. Why not?
@Dr Bubo:
“You see your doctor twice a year, he does a routine checkup …”
And who pays for this ? Do you have insurance ?
I’ve realised on my trips to the USA that doctors and hospitals don’t come cheap over there …
But you’re right of course about pharmacies – my wife and I bought all our non-prescription drugs while on holiday at CVS – and they cost less than half of the Hungarian price and even less if you compare with the prices in Germany.
“And who pays for this ? Do you have insurance ?”
I pay. Insurance is a scam, especially if you’re self employed.
@Dr. bubonic:
Well I also used to pay relatively much and I could afford it while working free-lance – but now that I’m retired I pay comparatively just a few €s out of my pension …
“Well I also used to pay relatively much”
You probably don’t live in the US. Insurance costs an arm and a leg, and they don’t even pay for the amputation. I could afford it, but why?
If I invest that money, I can afford first rate health care, so why settle for less?