Healthcare for Free?
October 1st, 2007 by robertnemeth
Of course not, it is never free. But in Hungary, it is not only the social security that you pay from your salary to receive healthcare and not only the recently introduced co-payments like the 300 HUF (1 euro 20 cents) visit-fee. There is an additional, though not legal form of paying, a kind of gratuity: the so-called thank-you-money or parasolvency.
Theoretically, all governments were fighting against it, but the lobby of the doctors has always been much stronger. Nevertheless, why is parasolvency a problem? First of all, it is a kind of black income; no one pays taxes after it. Second, it is not like a real tip, since giving it is not really voluntary: doctors often ask for it, and they even say a certain fee. And you should not think about small amounts. For instance, according to some surveys, the average fee for a birth is 60000 HUF, which is almost as much as the monthly minimum wage. Surgery costs even more. And if you are not willing to pay it, you will receive worse treatment.
It is true that there are some doctors who do not ask for this money, some even refuse it when being offered. However, as politicians say, parasolvency is one of the most acute illnesses of the healthcare system. By introducing the visit-fee (which, together with the other elements of the recent healthcare reform, is called genocide by the opposition), it seems that there is a bit less of this gratuity: less and less people pay the 1-2000 HUF for the family doctor. But this is like some grains of sand in the desert. If someone wants to fight against the black economy (its yearly amount reaches almost 50 per cent of the state budget), the problem of parasolvency has to be solved as well.
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