healthcare

“Competition is a discovery procedure that enables us to adapt to new circumstances. It is through further competition, not through agreement, that we gradually increase our efficiency.” This statement by economist F.A. Hayek best captures the essence of competition. Competition constantly separates the efficient from the inefficient. The invisible hand of the market is, in fact, the visible hand of the customer.

One of the recommendations of last week\'s IMF mission in Bulgaria is to \"cool down wage growth in the public sector.\" This is not the first time that the IME has commented on the accumulation of risks to fiscal stability as a result of ill-considered decisions to increase spending, and in particular wages in the defense and security sectors over the past year.

The answer is Solomonic – we should be asking a different question. Most people have a correct, rough idea that healthcare is not free and that someone, somewhere, somehow pays for it. Some people are even aware of health insurance contributions, and the most knowledgeable among them even know how much these contributions are in relation to their salary.

As of September 1, 2024, the part of an Oregon law that allowed possession of small amounts of psychoactive substances for personal use only under penalty of a misdemeanor was repealed. The decriminalization, which Oregonians voted for in a referendum in 2020, was intended to reduce the social stigma of addicted individuals, reduce overdose deaths, and ease users’ pathways to rehab.

Recently, a Slovakian newspaper published a commentary about tighter regulation in the healthcare sector. The question remains what exactly does he mean by the word \"tighter regulation\"?

The healthcare system has always been one of the most crucial points of a country’s social security, especially in Hungary’s case. In the last 15-20 years the Hungarian healthcare system went through a lot of changes and the general consensus is that despite the state insurance, the services aren’t sufficient.

The evolution of modern society has been intertwined with successive industrial revolutions. In the first industrial revolution, the spread of the steam engine began to replace human and animal labor. In the second industrial revolution, the assembly line enabled mass production and the increasingly simple manufacture of increasingly complex things.

Public healthcare should also work with priorities. What has more priority? Financial or geographical accessibility? Quality or quantity? What should be clearly free and, conversely, what is the Slovak patient-insured-consumer willing to pay for?

The pandemic period has not been kind to some patients\' relationship with health professionals. A period of information uncertainty, spawning hoaxes. The patient with their own opinion and their own information falls under a crooked gaze.

There are private solutions, for healthcare, schools, and transport. They are popular or at least coveted. Yet, there is a catch. The state always lurks beneath the surface. Many taxi companies are owned by cronies and have a huge lobbying power. There is a fixed rate and no competition in Budapest.