Kalfin and Moscow at war over the dental treatment of pensioners –

/ world today news/ New tension has arisen between ministers in the government. This time the friction is between the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs Ivaylo Kalfin and the Minister of Health Petar Moskov.

This is clear from the written correspondence between Kalfin and an MP from the Reform Bloc, reported a BGNES reporter. The reason for the tension between the ABV representative and Petar Moskov, who was left without the party support of the DSB, turned out to be the dental treatment of people over 65 years of age, a large number of whom are partially or completely “toothless”.

In his written response to a deputy from the Republic of Belarus, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs Ivaylo Kalfin points out that on the occasion of a discussion on reform in the field of dental medicine, held in July last year in the National Assembly, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy expressed its expectations to the Bulgarian dental union and the Association of Dental Managers in Bulgaria, that the Ministry of Health will create a working group that will work to achieve better health for citizens over 65 years of age, which will include measures for their dental treatment.

“Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no feedback from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy to continue the initiative to create a mechanism for the treatment of completely edentulous elderly people in order to improve their quality of life and develop a system for partial inclusion of the treatment of the totally edentulous health-insured people from the National Health Insurance Institute”, the deputy prime minister and social minister Ivaylo Kalfin answers the parliamentary question, making it clear that the responsibility for the lack of action lies with his colleague in the government – Petar Moskov.

“I recognize the importance of the problem and the need for better health for citizens through integrated prevention, early diagnosis and effective treatment of diseases and disabilities among edentulous elderly people over 65 with the aim of increasing by 20% the average life expectancy of people after reaching adulthood at the age of 65, but the population deprived of dental care (about 2,000,000 citizens) – partially or completely edentulous, who actually have health insurance, are not subject to the state policy, which is implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy”, it says the Minister of Social Affairs also explicitly specifies that the Ministry of Health “does not have the opportunity to finance health-insured patients of the health system who are totally toothless and for whom a mechanism should be found through a change in the legislation in the field of health care, which is the competence of the Ministry of Health” .

At the same time, Kalfin declared his support in principle for the reform in dental medicine proposed by Dr. Nikolay Sharkov – General Secretary of the Bulgarian Medical Union, which was proposed at the discussion in the Parliament on July 8, 2015, which foresees changes in the Health Law insurance, the Law on medical facilities and increasing the budget for dental care in the compulsory health insurance.