“There must be mass screening and proactive prevention, fully financed by the state, because the healthy person must be at the center of Bulgarian healthcare. The state must protect health - this is its highest role.“. With these words, the candidate for MP from Plovdiv region, Dr. Lidiya Chorbanova, outlined the vision of the “BSP-UNITED LEFT“ coalition in the sector in a pre-election debate on Bulgaria ON AIR. According to her, our healthcare system is currently profiting from sick people and this must be put an end to.
According to her, in order to get out of the top places of the negative rankings, the state must invest in prevention. “This is our first and most important task in the next National Assembly. For decades, not a single euro has been allocated for prevention, no mass screening is carried out. We do not know what Bulgarians are suffering from. And we all know that 1 euro given for prevention saves 8 euros for treatment.”, pointed out Dr. Chorbanova.
In her words, the state must return to healthcare. “The state is the insurer of two-thirds of the working population, but it contributes only one-third of this resource to the NHIF. If it fulfills this commitment, it may never be necessary to increase the health contribution. Moreover, the burden on people who currently pay half of their treatment must be reduced.“, she believes.
Lidiya Chorbanova stated that in order to guarantee equal access to healthcare for all Bulgarian citizens, the commercial status of municipal and regional hospitals must be reconsidered. “In regions where there is no private hospital, they are the only healthcare that people there could seek and must be protected.“, she was categorical.
According to her, state psychiatric hospitals have become the “backyard“ of psychiatry - the many problems in them must begin to be solved by reaching a consensus, starting with their financing method.
“We live in conditions of deep inequalities, and they are extremely dangerous in the field of healthcare. For us, left-wing people, health is a value, not a product. Healthcare is a fundamental human right and cannot be a trade. At the beginning of the transition, right-wing political forces explained how the market would regulate our healthcare system, but 30 years later we have not built a single state or municipal hospital. Our goals are clear - to return the state to the people, decent pay for medical professionals, health protection instead of firefighting, prevention and cure instead of expensive treatment.”, concluded Lidiya Chorbanova, calling for support on election day with number 5.