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Gesy budget well within estimates, HIO says

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The budget of the national health scheme (Gesy) remained within initial estimates, counting €794.7m for the period of January to August despite the pandemic, an HIO official said on Saturday.

Costs remained within the initial estimates, but any deficits will be covered by the accumulated reserves of €300m, senior Health Insurance Organisation official Angelos Tropis told the Cyprus News Agency.

He added that revenues for the first half of the year amounted to €593m between January and July, with an estimate to reach €1.25bn for the entire year.

Tropis also estimated that Gesy will face some small deficits until 2023 “which will be mainly due to the increase in expenditure for health services which the organisation wants to keep at high levels despite the pandemic.”

However, this will depend on the economic recovery.

He explained that the increase in costs was the same as the one initially estimated, despite the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.

“The deficits that are likely to arise… can be covered by the accumulated reserves of the fund amounting to €300 million”, he added.

In the event there is a faster recovery in the economy than the current forecasts of the finance ministry, there may be “some surpluses in the specific three years”, the official said.

“We expect that by 2024, the economy will fully recover and our budgets will be in surplus.”

According to data provided by the Health Insurance Organisation to the Cyprus News Agency, the actual expenditures of Gesy for the period January – August 2021 amounted to €794.7m.

The total expenditures for the whole of 2021, which include the administrative and capital expenditures are estimated by the organisation to amount to € 1.29bn, compared with €780m in 2020.

The significant increase in spending in 2021 compared with last year is due to the implementation of all health services in the system.

Moreover, the real income from contributions, supplements and discounts of medicines amounted to €593m while it is estimated by the HIO that these will amount to €1.25bn for the entire current year.

Revenues relate only to the period January – June 2021 due to a two-month delay, in relation to expenditures, to collect data on contributions from employees’ salaries, the news agency said.

Specifically, outpatient care of specialist doctors amounted to €149.3m while the expenses of personal doctors amounted to €57.7m, laboratory fees were at €34.9 million, pharmacists’ fees at €21.1m and the fees of other health professionals (physiotherapists, dentists and others) counted €21.9m, while the cost for outpatient drugs/consumables amounted to €116.3m after discounts.

Inpatient care expenses amounted to €371.9m during the same period, while the expenses for accidents and emergency and ambulance services amounted to €21.6m.

 

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