in-cyprus 14 January 2020 -Edited by Bouli Hadjioannou
The Health Insurance Organisation’s revenue from the general health system (GHS) is higher than anticipated, while spending is below that budgeted, the HIO senior official Angelos Tropis told the Cyprus News Agency on Tuesday.
The GHS was launched on June 1 last year but compulsory deductions on income started on March 1. From March 1 to October 31, the HIO had received €30m more than anticipated from GHD contributions and co-payments. Spending on the GHS from June 1 to the end of 2019 was €50m less the budgeted.
Tropis said that revenue from deductions from March 1 to October 31 was €330m while another €10m was collected from co-payments over the same period. Co-payments include visits to specialist doctors with the referral of a personal doctor which costs €6 and without which costs €25, as well as the purchase of medicine.
“We have a positive divergence in relation to the revenue projected in the actuarial study by Mercer which estimated we would collect around €310m,” he said.
As regards expenditure, in the first seven months of the operation of the GHS (June 1 to end of 2019), expenditure totalled €230m which is below the €280m budgeted (€40m a month) because the number of doctors who had signed up in the first few months was lower than the current number.
Tropis said that preparations are underway for an increase in GHS contributions in March in view of the full implementation of the scheme to cover also in-hospital care. The total budget is €1b a year or some €80 m a year,
