The National Tripartite Cooperation Council reviewed the draft budget of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for 2025, BTA reports.
The NHIF draft budget - revenues, transfers, everything is about 9.47 billion leva, said the NHIF manager Stanimir Mihaylov at the presentation of the project. Health insurance revenues are 9.25 billion leva; funds in the amount of 8.87 billion leva have been set aside for health insurance payments; for primary outpatient medical care - 647 million; for specialized outpatient medical care - 658 million; medical-diagnostic activities - 303 million leva; hospital medical care - 4.1 billion leva, Mihaylov pointed out.
The ministries of health and finance expressed support for the NHIF draft budget.
Vasil Velev, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Association of Infectious Diseases, said that the organization does not support the NHIF draft budget. In this budget, all the lobbies have something to be happy about, and people clearly have no lobby, because they pay for expensive treatment and expensive medicines when it is already too late, instead of detecting diseases at an early stage by introducing European standards for screening starting from an earlier age, covering a wider range of tests, Velev pointed out. Nothing is being done with the budget to limit abuses, to introduce more electronic technology, and it is contributing to more and more doctors letting "merchants into the temple", Velev also said.
Maria Mincheva, Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that the BIA's opinion on the draft budget outlined the positive trends, and added that they are aware that there is no way that there will be any significant changes within a month since there has been a regular government. This does not mean that we do not expect them to happen and it is extremely urgent to start a structured conversation about financing both the entire healthcare system and the Social Insurance Institution, Mincheva pointed out.
The BCCI expressed support for the bill. The Chairman of the Chamber, Tsvetan Simeonov, said that the BCCI highly appreciates the government's efforts to prepare a draft budget that works in favor of our accession to the eurozone. We realize that a higher goal is being pursued and compromises must be made, he added.
The KRIB expressed its support in principle for the bill. The support is not unconditional, for several years the NHIF has been operating in a situation of a conditionally hidden deficit, Deyan Denev from the KRIB pointed out. According to the organization, the planned 16 percent increase in the NHIF's health insurance payments compared to last year's budget will allow people to have better access to quality medical care.
The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (KITUB) stated that they would vote "abstain". The main reason is that the money for staff at the Treasury has been reduced compared to the draft budget proposed by the caretaker cabinet with Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev. The average age of people working in the Fund is 60 years, there is a lack of young specialists, the union explained.
The "Podkrepa" CT also said that they would vote "abstain" given the unrealized preliminary requests for an increase in the incomes of those working in the Fund. This budget was prepared on a historical basis and lacks policies and reforms to address the main challenges of the system, said the president of the union Dimitar Manolov.
The draft budget of the State Social Insurance (SSI) for 2025 was also discussed.
The Director of the National Social Insurance Institute (NSI) Ivaylo Ivanov commented that in recent days the draft law on the SSI budget for 2025 has been in the spotlight for a long time due to the percentage by which pensions will be updated as of July 1. He pointed out that the financial parameters of the bill were developed on the assumption that pensions for work activity, granted by December 31 of the previous year, will increase by 8.6 percent as of July 1, with the percentage calculated according to the Swiss rule. The minimum amounts of pensions for work activity and the amount of the social old-age pension, as well as related pensions and supplements, will also increase by the same percentage and as of the same date. Ivanov appealed that the issue of updating pensions should not become a reason for the focus of the discussion to shift from other, no less important parameters of the bill.
The philosophy of the bill finds objective expression in three words - stability, security and balance, Ivanov pointed out.
According to the draft budget, the revenues of the Social Insurance Institution for 2025 are estimated at nearly 15.216 billion leva, which is an increase of 18.1 percent compared to 2024, with this increase in revenues reflecting the increase in the minimum wage from 933 leva to 1077 leva, the income policy in the public sector and the increase in the maximum social security income from 3750 leva to 4130 leva. The expectations for the growth of insured persons are also reflected, due to the improvement of the situation on the labor market and the increase in the average social security income for the country.
Ivanov also said that the policies built into the bill do not lead to a deterioration in the financial situation of the Social Insurance Institution, and even create prerequisites for its financial strengthening.
In 2025 The average pension is expected to increase by 10.4 percent in nominal terms, and its purchasing power by nearly 7.8 percent. The forecast is that pension expenses will be over 24.1 billion leva, which is equivalent to about 11.1 percent of the expected GDP for this year. Expenditures on cash benefits and assistance will be nearly 3.074 billion leva, Ivanov noted.
Minister of Labor and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov expressed support for the draft budget for the Social Security Fund. I am glad that the most vulnerable part of the population will not pay for the difficult situation we are in. I thank all the partners in this administration for finding a dialogue and coming out in a good situation with the most vulnerable part of the population, Gutsanov pointed out.
The Ministry of Finance also expressed support for the draft budget of the Social Insurance Association.
The AIKB refrains from supporting the draft budget of the social security. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AIKB Vasil Velev said that the association is proposing a freeze on pensions or alternatively removing the Covid supplement from pensions. It was put in place temporarily, then like many temporary things, it became permanent, Velev noted. For 2022-2024, we have an increase in the average pension of 71 percent with inflation of 25 percent, we have obviously increased pensions for several years ahead, he also pointed out. Another proposal by the AIKB is for a change in the insurance rules, such that those employed in the budget sector would be insured at their own expense in a proportion in which those employed in the real sector, employed under the Labor Code, are insured.
Maria Mincheva from the BIA commented that when talking about updating pensions, it is necessary to tell pensioners fairly what the long-term estimates of the National Social Insurance Institute are. In fact, the large increases in updating pensions end this year. In the following years, 2026-2027, we are talking about increases of 4 percent or less, she pointed out.
In her words, when the question is raised whether pensioners should pay "this price", it is fair to say that it is not pensioners who pay the price, but all workers. Mincheva also noted that it is good to know that the pension system is important for working people. It is important to work on increasing financial literacy, otherwise we educate people that when they reach retirement age they will be the most disadvantaged, but regardless of this, the state will take care of them, regardless of whether they pay insurance contributions, said Mincheva.
The BCCI expressed its support in principle for the draft budget of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The chairman of the chamber, Tsvetan Simeonov, said that they do not support the increase in the maximum social security income, which is again being done through administrative means.
The BCCI stated that they are refraining from supporting it. Our main contradiction is the long-standing repetition of developing a mechanism for increasing the maximum social security income and the minimum wage, and we continue to consistently defend it, explained the KRIB.
The KITUB indicated that they will support the law on the budget of the Social Security Institution under three conditions - an increase in social security contributions, the amount of the minimum daily unemployment benefit to be increased to 30 leva and their proposal to limit the periods of declaring social security contributions without actually paying them to a maximum of six months.
One of the reasons we do not support this budget is because there is talk of a 5 percent increase in the salaries of NSSI employees. With "gnashing" teeth, we were ready to agree to 10 percent, now you are offering us 5 percent, pointed out the president of the "Podkrepa" CT Dimitar Manolov.