If Peter Marki-Zay, the Hungarian opposition's prime ministerial candidate, won the parliamentary elections this spring, he would implement a plan nursed by the Hungarian left for a long time now: healthcare services would go into private hands and hospitals would be privatised, according to a statement made by the candidate in 2018.

Peter Marki-Zay, the joint PM candidate of Hungary’s leftist parties, would execute a comprehensive privatisation in the healthcare system, Mediaworks News Centre points out in an article. The current mayor of Hodmezovasarhely, a town in southeast Hungary, spoke about this at a campaign event in March 2018, arguing that

„…I’m convinced that only drastic privatisation can help us out of this particular situation that exists today. It is another issue, of course, that insurance shouldn’t be privatised. That should be a so-called single-payer system, a single entity paying for medical costs. With the US as an exception, this system is in place in almost every country. In developed countries. So it’s very important, out of solidarity and other considerations, that the money should be dispatched from one source, but service providers should indeed be private service providers, competing with each other and managing their finances responsibly. „

All in all, Peter Marki-Zay would privatise medical services, hospitals and outpatient care centres. This would imply that healthcare institutions would operate on a profit-oriented basis, as opposed to the current system, where the it’s the state that pays for healthcare costs and bears the responsibility.

This is not the first left-wing plan for privatisation

The intention to privatise the healthcare system is not a novel idea from Hungary’s leftist parties that had already made several attempts at privatisation. First led by (former prime ministers) Peter Medgyessy and then Ferenc Gyurcsany, the former leftist-liberal government – a coalition of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) – already had plans for privatisation. In June 2003, during Mr Medgyessy’s term in office, a bill was submitted to the National Asssembly that would have allowed for the involvement of private capital, as minority owner, in the operations of Hungary’s healthcare system under certain conditions. After the adoption of the law, Fidesz – the current governing party – appealed to the Constitutional Court (Ab), which annulled the law at the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Workers’s Party initiated a binding referendum on the issue in the autumn of 2003 and Fidesz also jointed the initiative.

The Constitutional Court annulled the law on the grounds of invalidity under public law, which means it did not examine the content of the law, although it’s received several petitions from political parties and professional organisations. The referendum, which took place on 5 December 2004, was finally declared invalid, but following the top court’s decision, the real issue at stake was the other question, the dual citizenship of Hungarians living beyond the borders.

It is worth recalling that at the time, leftist-liberal politicians campaigned for the privatision of hospitals with similar fierceness and intensity reflected by Mr Marki-Zay’s 2018 statements, Mediaworks writes. The Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), a former liberal party, took a leading role, with party chief Gabor Kuncze calling the plebiscite initiative on the rejection of privatisation a proposal reminiscent of Communist times. He was adamant that the privatisation of some services would not make healthcare more expensive.

His party colleague, Economy and Transport Minister Janos Koka underlined that care would not be more expensive, but private funding could make hospitals more efficient.

In its response, Fidesz drew the liberals’ attention to the principle that people’s health is not a business. “Investors obviously want to make money, private hospitals are no charity service,” they stressed, adding however, that everywhere in the world where healthcare has been privatised, it became more expensive.

Privatisation kick-started by Gyurcsany government

The left has not abandoned its privatisation plans even later: Lajos Molnap, health minister in the second Gyurcsany government, remarked during a debate that he often heard the word ‘profit’ used as a swear word in connection with hospitals.

“If something is profitable, it is not a crime. It does not mean export. Only profitability can be the basis of a publicly financed institution, otherwise it has no place under the sun. Even if an institution belongs to the state, it cannot be making a loss,” Mr Molnar said.

The leftist government led by Ferenc Gyurcsany launched the privatisation of hospitals at the local governments’ level in 2003, with some towns contracting private companies to run their local hospitals. These companies – including Hospinvest, which went bankrupt in 2009 – profiteered on Hungarian healthcare and then left behind heavy debts that the municipalities could only finance via state assistance.