The general health system (Gesy) is financially robust and projected to remain solvent at least through to the year 2031, an official asserted on Monday.
Angelos Tropis, a senior official with the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) that runs Gesy, said the fund’s reserves currently come to approximately €590 million. He was speaking to the Cyprus News Agency regarding the preliminary financial results for Gesy for the first half of the year.
Revenues during the first half of 2024 clocked in at €848.7 million, and expenditures at €809.2 million – yielding a surplus of €39.5 million.
“The robustness of the fund ensures both its resilience to unforeseen situations and the attainment of the objectives of the organisation (the HIO) for ongoing upgrades to the healthcare services provided to beneficiaries,” said Tropis.
According to the official, the latest actuarial study found that the Gesy fund would be “viable” for the period 2022 to 2031, both under the baseline scenario and under stress tests.
Breaking down the Gesy revenues during January to June this year, contributions came to €784.7 million, co-pay and doctors’ contributions to €31.8 million, discounts on medicines €23.2 million, and treatment of EU nationals €9 million.
On the expenditures side, inpatient treatment came to €370.1 million, expenses on specialist doctors €118.3 million, and expenses on GPs €50 million. In addition, payments to laboratories cost €27.1 million, remuneration of pharmacists €17.4 million, remuneration of other healthcare professionals, nurses and dentists €32.3 million, while the cost for non-hospital medicines and consumables came to €133.1 million.
The preliminary results do not include administrative expenses and revenues, depreciation and adjustments, or accruals that will arise at the end of the year.
Gesy is the universal health insurance system, established by law in 2017. The first phase, initiated in March 2019, focused on outpatient care, laying the foundation for more comprehensive coverage that would later include inpatient care and emergency services. This phase allowed personal physicians to enroll patients into the system, and set the groundwork for pharmacies and laboratories to integrate into Gesy.
The second phase, rolled out in June 2020, marked the completion of Gesy’s implementation, offering full operational status to the system. This phase introduced inpatient care among other services.
