Fidesz will scrap any multi-player health insurance regime if it regains power and will have investors pay the costs, party chairman Viktor Orbán declared Wednesday at an international press conference.
Asserting that the message of Sunday’s referendum is that ordinary people reject the privatization of health insurance, he said Fidesz wants potential investors to know that more than 3 million people rejected the government’s health-care policy, which implies that they have no faith in a multi-player health insurance system either.
Fidesz and the Christian Democrats will submit a bill to Parliament to prevent the multi-player health insurance act passed by Parliament’s governing majority from taking effect next year, Orbán said.
He added that the opposition will keep coming forward with initiatives if the governing majority rejects their proposals to make up lost revenues in post-secondary education and health care, he said.
Observing that Hungary’s 1% GDP growth places it last among the countries that joined the EU in 2004, Orbán said every 1% of economic growth could generate Ft 100-120 billion in revenues for the state, therefore a new policy is needed.
Socialist health politician Mihály Kökény said Orbán is undermining confidence among potential investors by making statements without coming up with a substantive alternative proposal, adding that this casts doubts on Fidesz’s ability to govern the country.
Health Minister Ágnes Horváth said in response there is no stopping the continuing transformation of the health system. There is no way of compensating GPs for lost revenues, she added, but the ministry is looking at ways and means of obtaining funds for damage limitation.
Orbán, former foreign minister János Martonyi and foreign affairs specialist Zsolt Németh, met with ambassadors and told them that the referendum was a major victory for Hungary and Hungarians. He criticised the government and said Hungary needs genuine reforms rather than arbitrary austerity measures.
Absolutely spot on that Hungary needs a cohesive plan of reforms rather than the arbitrary fleecing of the people coupled with curtailment of services – which the people bereft of money must somehow supplement from money that doesn’t exist… But, what’s the alternative – face the facts, there’s no money left for the health services. Either there’s some plan now for a way for something rise in its place, or it crashes spectacularly and there’s no health care for anybody.