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The event, held under the theme “Struggle or Compromise? Resource Creation and Allocation in the Transformation of Hungarian Healthcare Financing,” focused on reform, resilience, and the evolving priorities of the national healthcare system.
The discussions addressed recent and ongoing structural changes, including the partial reform of pharmaceutical financing, the modification of sectoral taxes, and the transformation of individual compassionate-use programs.
Participants explored how funding models could better reflect social needs while maintaining economic sustainability within a transparent, evidence-based dialogue between stakeholders.
According to conference speakers, the broader economic context continues to constrain reform capacity. Hungary’s GDP growth has lagged its regional peers since the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the state continues to spend generously on economic support. By contrast, public spending on health, education, and social care remains significantly below both the EU27 and V4 averages.
“It is important to speak cautiously about Hungary’s current economic performance and its future outlook,” said Péter Ákos Bod, professor emeritus at Corvinus University of Budapest. “Uncertainty remains exceptionally high, both domestically and globally. Geopolitical realignment makes developments unpredictable, especially at Europe’s periphery, while rapid technological advances and climate change further deepen this instability.”
Speakers also pointed to persistent public health challenges. Hungary continues to face above-average rates of obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption compared to the OECD average. It also records the lowest number of healthy life years and the highest rate of preventable deaths in the region.
While data from the European statistical body Eurostat suggests that access to healthcare services in Hungary is relatively favorable, public perception remains negative, and shortages of nurses and caregivers have become particularly alarming.
“Only about 15–20% of our overall health status is determined by the healthcare system itself,” said Judit Fendler, chancellor of the University of Szeged. “We could achieve much greater improvements if more focus were placed not only on financing acute care but also on shaping public attitudes toward health, improving the effectiveness of screening programs, and developing long-term care capacities.”
The conference also examined the potential ripple effects of global policy changes. In the United States, a comprehensive reform effort is underway to reduce high pharmaceutical prices, including the possible introduction of a European-style reference pricing model. Because this model would benchmark U.S. prices against countries with comparable GDPs, its implementation could indirectly influence European and, by extension, Hungarian drug prices.
“If such a system were introduced, avoiding the use of net price references would be crucial,” noted Tamás Dávid, deputy director general for drug reimbursement at the National Health Insurance Fund (NEAK). “Otherwise, the consequences could be extremely severe. However, it is also possible that a unified European list price system could emerge, which would fundamentally reshape the existing structure, and might even require the creation of a completely new drug reimbursement model in Hungary.”
The prevailing direction of pharmaceutical policy, speakers agreed, is defined by expanding professional competencies, enhancing digitalization, and improving health outcomes. A government proposal soon to enter public consultation aims to broaden the scope of general practitioners’ prescribing rights, introduce new prescribing indicators, and increase pharmacists’ professional responsibilities, including authorization to renew prescriptions for chronic treatments and administer vaccinations.
“The future of healthcare must be both data-driven and human-centered,” said Deputy State Secretary Judit Bidló at the Ministry of Interior. “Artificial intelligence is not a goal in itself but a tool to support medical decision-making. Our goal is to link all medicine-related data sources, process unstructured documents in the national eHealth system (EESZT), and create an AI-based analytics environment that will form the basis for future evaluations. The resulting data will play a key role in improving health outcomes.”
One of the most discussed initiatives at the conference was the creation of the Batthyány-Strattmann László Foundation for Healing, established in 2025 as a unique institution to provide patient support based purely on equity considerations.
The foundation manages a budget of HUF 39.5 billion for 2025 and HUF 47.2 billion for 2026, employing 15 staff members. Since its launch, it has received 5,828 applications, with 3,265 still under review, involving 407 types of medicines, including 111 new therapies.
All medications without existing public insurance coverage fall under the foundation’s remit, and applications continue to be submitted through NEAK.
“The foundation meets weekly, prioritizing urgent cases and reviewing all applications individually while upholding the principle of equal opportunity,” said Katalin Kovácsné Putnoki, chair of the foundation’s trustees. “Future development plans include reducing the review time to 60 days, exploring integration with the EESZT system, and implementing GDPR-compliant communication.”
Participants widely viewed the creation of this foundation as an important step toward improving fairness and access within Hungary’s healthcare financing framework.
The conference concluded with a consensus among experts that achieving a sustainable, patient-centered, and transparent health financing model will require not only funding and technology but also trust and collaboration between all actors in the system, a delicate balance of struggle and compromise.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of October 31, 2025.
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