House approves €94 million boost for the Health Insurance Organisation

The House plenum on Thursday approved an extra €94 million for the Health Insurance Organisation for fiscal year 2024, but not without some gripes from MPs.

The supplementary budget largely concerns expenses for inpatient care and medicines.

The HIO is the agency that runs the national health system or Gesy.

The agency’s total budget for 2024 is now projected to come to €1.75 billion.

Revenues this year are expected to rise by €95 million compared to 2023. Of this €95 million, around €78 million comes from contributions.

MPs heard that the HIO’s budget will post a surplus this year as well.

In remarks before the vote on the supplementary budget, Diko deputy Zacharias Koulias complained that the budget for the healthcare sector has ballooned since the introduction of the national health system.

Previously, he said, the entire balance sheet of the health ministry used to be €500 million; now, after Gesy, the HIO’s budget “is almost €2 billion”.

With all this money made available, Koulias quipped, “whenever someone so much as sneezes there should be four doctors looming around them.”

According to the Diko MP – known for his colourful comments – the mortality rate in Cyprus has actually worsened since the rollout of Gesy.

“Here in Cyprus”, he complained, “we assigned the healthcare system to trade unions and employers organisations, instead of to the health ministry and the doctors as in other countries.”

Dipa MP Alekos Tryfonides proposed setting up an internal audit service at the HIO “so that it can tackle many of things that happen but are unseen, as well as the many things that are seen and should not happen”.