Healthcare in Hungary
Hungary has a tax-funded universal healthcare system, organized by the state-owned National Health Insurance Fund. While healthcare is considered universal, several reasons persist preventing Hungarian nationals to access healthcare services. For instance, a Hungarian citizen who lived abroad but is unable to show contributions to another country's healthcare system will not be able to access the Hungarian healthcare system free of charge. However, to the OECD, 100% of the total population is covered by universal health insurance, which is absolutely free for children, mothers or fathers with babies, students, pensioners, people with low income, handicapped people, priests and other church employees. In 2022 the cost of public health insurance is 8,400 HUF per month which is the equivalent of $23.69. The healthcare system underwent significant changes which also resulted in improving life expectancy and a very low infant mortality rate. According to the OECD Hungary spent 7.8% of its GDP on health care in 2012. Total health expenditure was $US1,688.7 per capita in 2011, US$1,098.3governmental-fund and US$590.4 private-fund.
Doctors' pay is the lowest among the OECD countries. General practitioners are paid 1.4 times the average wage and hospital specialists 1.6 times.
History
The first hospitals go back to the 13th-century mining towns of Hungary. The first mining health insurance was founded by János Thurzó in 1496. The first modern insurer was established in 1907, named Országos Munkásbetegsegélyező és Balesetbiztosító Pénztár.The first steps to overall health insurance took place in the Horthy era with the creation of Országos Társadalombiztosítási Intézet in 1928. Social services were complete by 1938, at that time the Hungarian social health insurance system was the most progressive and charitable in East-Central Europe.
After World War II the Communist government fully nationalized social insurance. Since then the Hungarian healthcare system has been state-owned, overall, and available to all people.
The free-market shift initiated after the end of communist rule in 1989-1990 put a strain on the largely centralized, wholly tax-funded public health system, which required far-reaching reforms. These resulted in the creation of the National Healthcare Fund, in 1993. The OEP, predominantly based on a social insurance system, is the public organization currently controlling the management of health care in Hungary. 83% of the financing for health care comes from taxes and other public revenues.
Participation in the insurance scheme is mandatory for everyone in the workforce, including the self-employed. Most private hospitals also operate under the OEP framework. Because of past hiring policies, Hungarian hospitals often have redundancies of doctors, and a lack of nurses, resulting in an unproductive misuse of human resources.
So-called "gratitude payments", another communist legacy, require in practice a cash payment to have access to better treatments. According to the survey conducted by the Euro health consumer index in 2015 Hungary was among the European countries in which unofficial payments to doctors were reported most commonly. In 2020 the government announced a crackdown on these payments along with an unprecedented pay rise for doctors.
Medical treatment deemed "medically necessary" is provided free of charge for European citizens in the country.
Infrastructure
As a high-income nation, Hungary has a relatively developed health infrastructure. Ambulances of the Országos Mentőszolgálat reach all over the country within 15 minutes at the very latest. In 2013 OMSZ built 20 new ambulance stations and renewed 60 others with the purchase of 200 new ambulances.Air ambulance service was completed in 2009 with the grand opening of Szentes air ambulance station. Air ambulance bases cover the whole country. Helicopters can reach 85% of the country's territory within 15 minutes at the very latest. All national and county hospitals have heliports, including the specialized and most professional university clinics and emergency centers in Budapest, Pécs, Szeged, and Debrecen.