Act LXXXIII of 1997 in Hungary is a law that defines the Hungarian health care system, including which services are free, which are covered by copayment, and which are excluded from prepaid public benefit schemes. This law also establishes the financing of health care services through the Health Insurance Fund.
Here are some of the main provisions of Act LXXXIII of 1997:
- Free services: The act defines which health services are free of charge, including services for the prevention and early detection of diseases, curative services, and other services like deliveries, medical rehabilitation, and emergency ambulance services.
- Copayment services: The act defines which health services are covered by copayment.
- Exclusions: The act defines which health services are excluded.
- Medical assistive tools: The act defines medical assistive tools and requires that they be provided.
- Nursing fees: The act provides nursing fees for adult relatives who care for people with severe disabilities, or who are permanently ill or under the age of 18.
“Entitlement to health care is based mainly on the participation in the social insurance scheme (with compulsory membership, opting out is not permitted), and to a few services on citizenship. The national Health Insurance Fund (HIF) provides a virtually universal population coverage with an almost comprehensive benefit package, which applies to the whole country… Tax revenues are also used for covering the deficit of the HIF, certain special services (e.g., public health, catastrophe medicine, experimental medical technologies, family planning and maternal care), which are financed entirely from the central government budget…, and the copayment for certain medicines and therapeutic devices for socially disadvantaged…”
