Covid-19: Bulgaria allocates about 250M leva on healthcare spending
Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on July 28 that the Budget spending on healthcare was being increased by about 250 million leva, or 128 million euro, until the end of 2020.
Angelov, in his first briefing with reporters since taking over as health minister last week, said that the additional funding would “guarantee the stability of the [healthcare] system in the coming months.”
About half of that amount, 126.3 million leva, was an increase to government funding for the National Health Insurance Fund, the independent government agency that manages the collection of mandatory health care insurance and parcels out the funds to the health care system.
Separately, the funding for medical staff to receive additional payments of 1000 leva for their front-line work will be increased by 67 million leva until the end of the year, while medical and other health staff would benefit from the 30 per cent increase to personnel costs of state institutions fighting the pandemic, which will cost 12.4 million leva.
There was also additional funding for medical facilities – 17.3 million for hospitals operating as commercial enterprises and six million leva for facilities operated by municipalities, Angelov said.
The figures announced by Angelov were the same as those mentioned by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov a day earlier, when he unveiled a package of additional social and economic measures aimed at reducing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Angelov also mentioned the programme, approved by the Cabinet in mid-July, to subsidise domestic tourism. Under this programme, eligible medical and other front-line personnel will receive one-off grants of 210 leva if they book a stay of at least seven nights in Bulgarian hotels. The scheme will be in place until November 30 2021 and would cost 15 million leva.
(Photo: Bulgarian Health Ministry)
For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria, please click here.
For as little as three euro a month, you can become a Patreon supporter of The Sofia Globe, with access to exclusive subscriber-only content:
