Public opinion rejects left-wing plans to privatize health care

Péter Márki-Zay, the candidate for prime minister of the left, has outlined his plans for the transformation of health care in several statements in recent years, in which he praised health care fee and believed in the privatization of service providers. It is important to emphasize that the suggestions of the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely are not unprecedented on the left, in 2003 the government of Péter Medgyessy and then in 2006, the government of Ferenc Gyurcsány also planned to outsource health service to private entities. Századvég has found out the Hungarian population’s opinion about the privatization of health care.

Jan 31, 2022

Márki-Zay supports privatized health care charging a fee

Regarding health care, Péter Márki-Zay explained in 2018 that

“I am convinced that only a drastic privatization can help in the existing state of today”,

adding that “Providers, indeed, should be private providers, competing with each other and managing responsibly.” In 2020, the candidate for prime minister of the left outlined the need to “build a providing health care in the competitive market that also gives room to private service providers in a single-insurance model.” In addition, in 2021, Márki-Zay stated that he sees “a competitive health care model of single insurance as ideal because “It would be hypocritical to say that health care is not a business” and “where health care with a fee has been introduced it has worked well.”

Hungarians oppose the privatization of hospitals

It can be stated that the proposals of the left regarding the privatization of health care and the outsourcing of health care services to private actors do not meet the expectations of the Hungarian electorate. Research points out that

85 percent of respondents oppose the transfer of hospital to private investors,

and only 12 percent would support the privatization of health care by the state in Hungary.

Methodology: CATI method (via telephone), n=1000, among the politically active Hungarian adult population, data collection: January 2022, margin of error: +/- 3.4 percentage points

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Public opinion rejects left-wing plans to privatize health care

Márki-Zay supports privatized health care charging a fee

Hungarians oppose the privatization of hospitals

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