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medicines

Patient access to antirheumatic medicinal products

|Read the full text of the analysis at this link| The analysis examines the challenges of access to medicines for the treatment of rheumatic diseases and the associated socio-economic consequences in Bulgaria. Based on data on the number of health insured persons, the costs of outpatient and clinical procedures, as well as the number of lost working days, we highlight …

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Does the European Commission measure Bulgaria with double standards?

Recently, the topic of public procurement of medicines at private medical institutions has once again gained media coverage. With the start of the new political season, internal pressure for action has increased, and the influence of the European Commission remains unsubstantiated and creates the feeling of dubious goals and double standards. This naturally leaves an interesting aftertaste …

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The problem of drug inflation needs a solution

“Inflation is taxation without legislation” – this phrase, uttered by the American economist Milton Friedman, is universal and valid for every period of inflation from the past to the present. Another part of his thesis is that inflation is a purely monetary phenomenon, or more clearly – when too much money …

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Budget 2021 of the New Zealand Government (State) (Shirt)

For 2021, an increase in the budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) by approximately BGN 312 million is planned. Unlike the previous year, this time it is nominal - within 7.2%, for comparison in 2019 - 2020 it was 9.1%. The main items on which these …

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Reform to improve access to healthcare in Bulgaria

|Full text of the analysis| The results of the study of the Bulgarian market show the conclusions of previous analyses, such as the one commissioned by the European Commission in 2019, concerning the positive effects of the entry of biosimilar medicines into European markets. In other words, price competition between biosimilar medicines and reference medicines (together and among themselves) allows …

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More questions than solutions

More than a week ago, a draft amendment to the Law on Medicinal Products in Human Medicine (LMHPHM) was published on the website of the Ministry of Health. In addition to the changes to the law itself, the transitional and final provisions of the draft make adjustments to 10 other laws related to healthcare. A similar case was …

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Banished medicines

This year's budget for medicines in Bulgaria amounts to 1.2 billion leva, forming a quarter of the total healthcare budget of the National Health Insurance Fund. However, our market still lacks certain medicines that are easily accessible in the European market. The lack of these medicines, as well as the abuses on this market, are mainly due to …

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Proposal for a rational drug policy

This article is a summary of our new analysis and proposal for reform of the drug policy in Bulgaria. What did we find out? The analysis covers 56% of health-insured persons and 40% of the funds reimbursed by the NHIF and includes 4 groups of diseases: cardiovascular, malignant tumors, diabetes mellitus and rheumatoid. In 2016, over 2.5 million health-insured …

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Health Budget 2019 – More Money, Low Efficiency, and Possible Reforms?

health budget 2019

Main picture This year, healthcare spending increased by another 490 million leva, with the NHIF budget reaching 4.35 billion leva. As every year, the budget increases, with the percentage change compared to the previous year 2018 being 11%. This year, there is no change in the insurance burden, with health insurance remaining at 8%. This should not reassure …

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Some doubts about the new health insurance models

When we talk about health, does more money equal better quality? How accessible is medical care in Bulgaria? What are the useful moves before the institutions? The state of the system Questions like the above have been asked annually, and this year marks twenty years since the beginning of the reform. A beginning that is not …

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