Club Dinner And Discussion On The Topic “The Bulgarian Healthcare System Reform And Current Trends In European Healthcare”
May 21st, 2015, Thursday
The Reform Union Club brought together its members, partners and friends at a Club discussion focusing on the issue of healthcare, which took place on 21 May 2015 in the Serdika Hall of Grand Hotel Sofia. The reader invited by the Club was Mr. Frederik Roeder – a leading German healthcare management consultant with serious experience in the restructuring of the healthcare systems in the countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia, in the introduction of know-how and new policies, and in the reformation of medical services following the German good practices model. Mr Roeder presented a brief analysis of the main healthcare systems around the world, highlighted the principles and practices of the efficient models, pointed out the most widely spread issues and advised what in his view would be the optimal approach to the reforms in Bulgaria. As an example for a perfect healthcare system, the guest cited Singapore, which has one of the most market-oriented health insurance systems in the world. Singapore’s spending on healthcare is relatively low (less than 5% of its GDP) compared with that of any other developed country. The scheme is based on one main idea – that the spending for healthcare is most efficient when the expenses are paid by the patients themselves and not by a third party. According to Mr. Roeder, Bulgaria has a chance of real reforms if it adapts its system to the basic market principles. This means that while the government makes sure to guarantee that the entire population is insured, market mechanisms such as competition, private property and freedom of choice for the patients must also be introduced. The guest also highlighted the fact that the Internet and the new telecommunications are becoming increasingly widespread in healthcare, helping patients receive a medical opinion when the nature of their complaint does not require direct physical contact with the doctor.
Among the guests present at the discussion were representatives of the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry and experts from the Health Ministry.