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08-10-2024

CHIF’s budget will rise to almost 4 billion next year

Iliustracija

The Compulsory Health Insurance Council has approved the draft budget for the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund (CHIF) for 2025. Next year’s budget revenue and expenditure is expected to be EUR 479 million (almost 14%) higher than the budget approved by Seimas for this year, amounting to around EUR 3.94 billion. This budget reflects the State’s efforts to strengthen the health system and to ensure that health services are more easily accessible to all citizens.   

“The growth of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund reflects the efforts of the entire population of Lithuania to create wealth. As part of this effort, there is a commitment to repay the premiums paid with quality and timely health services. Next year, with the significant increase in the state’s capacity, priority will be given to increasing access to health services, as well as to expanding the reimbursement of medicines. These are health services that are used by the vast majority of the country’s population, and they will all benefit from the positive changes” – says Aurimas Pečkauskas, Minister for Health.

According to Gytis Bendorius, Director of the National Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health (NHIF), a significant increase in CHIF’s revenues and expenditures is planned for 2025. “We will increase reimbursement for prescription medicines, introduce new reimbursable services and pay slightly more for most of the health services we currently provide to cover the rising need for tests, inflation and wage increases. We expect that health care institutions will provide better services with increased funding,” said the Head of the NHIF.       
Significant increase in revenues 

The main part of CHIF’s budget, as much as 95% of its total revenue, comes from compulsory health insurance premiums. Employee contributions administered by Sodra are expected to reach EUR 2.7 billion in 2025, which is 14.7% higher than the 2024 target. 

Another important part of the revenue is the state budget contributions for the population covered by public insurance. This is expected to amount to more than EUR 1 billion in 2025, an increase of 13.4% on the previous year. The largest share of those covered by public insurance is made up of non-working pensioners, children, the unemployed and students. For each person in these groups, the state will pay 6.98% of the twelve minimum monthly salaries in 2023, amounting to EUR 703.6 per year. 

In 2025, the state budget appropriations for the state functions delegated to the CHIF budget are expected to reach EUR 167.3 million, representing around 4.2% of the total CHIF budget revenue. It is also expected to generate EUR 33 million in other revenues next year.

Focus on primary health care      

Funds for personal health care services represent the main part of the CHIF budget (around 70% of total expenditure). Next year, almost EUR 2.8 billion is expected to be spent on personal health services, which is EUR 352 million more than this year. 

The basic prices of healthcare services are planned to be indexed in order to further enable healthcare institutions to increase the wages of their employees. It is also planned to further develop cost-effective health care services by reducing hospitalisation and promoting outpatient services, such as the expansion of day hospitals, and to improve the payment system for consultations with specialists. New services reimbursed by the CHIF budget are also to be introduced.

The plan is to gradually increase the size of the family doctor team by 2030, by adding new members and increasing the number of specialist posts in the family doctor team. In addition, it is planned to improve the payment of family doctor services by allocating funds for tests within the scope of the family doctor’s expertise.    

In 2025, it is also planned to expand the teams of specialists providing primary outpatient mental health services as case managers, to improve the provision of primary dental care by allowing health facilities to recruit more oral hygienists and to reduce the size of the population treated.  

The plans for 2025-2026 also include a recalculation of the base prices for inpatient medical rehabilitation and palliative care services to take into account the rising costs of specialists’ wages and the cost of maintaining patients in hospital.

Aiming to reduce patients’ expenditure on medicines      

Next year’s CHIF budget foresees almost EUR 711 million, or 12% more than this year’s budget, for medicines, medical aids (MDAs), orthopaedic technical devices, food for special medical purposes and rental of medical devices. This is an important contribution to ensuring access to healthcare for the population and reducing the financial burden on patients. 

In 2025, higher spending is planned to meet the growing need for medicines and MAs due to an ageing population and increasing outpatient services.

One of the main objectives is to increase the share of reimbursed medicines in the total number of prescription medicines, thereby reducing costs for patients. 

In 2025, there will be an increase in centralised funding for medicines and MAs, a reassessment of the base prices for renting ventilators, oxygen machines and pain pumps, and consideration of reimbursement for the rental of machines for obstructive sleep apnoea. Reimbursement of closed-loop insulin pumps and sports prostheses for children are also to be introduced.              

A quarter of a billion for health programmes

The 2025 CHIF budget includes almost EUR 251 million, or 23% more than this year, to pay for health programmes and other health insurance costs. These funds are crucial for improving public health and increasing the coverage of preventive programmes.   

A strong focus will be placed on prevention programmes that help detect serious diseases early. Currently, there are more than 1.7 million people in Lithuania who, according to their age, are eligible for the services provided by prevention programmes. Early diagnosis of cervical, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer, as well as cardiovascular disease prevention programmes, ensure that a large proportion of the population has the opportunity to detect potential health problems at an early stage and to receive timely treatment. 

In addition to prevention, the CHIF budget finances a transplantation programme, dentures, emergency counselling, measures under the National Immuno-Prophylaxis Programme and tuberculosis treatment. In 2025, the COVID-19 vaccination and treatment programme will continue to be funded, as well as the implementation of European Parliament and Council regulations and the reimbursement of cross-border healthcare costs, to ensure that Lithuanians have access to health services in other EU countries. 

Help to save money for the most vulnerable   

The 2025 CHIF budget foresees around EUR 167 million to finance the functions delegated by the state. This will cover life-saving services such as ambulance services, blood donor reimbursements and the cost of health care for persons performing compulsory military service. 

As in the past, next year’s plans will continue to cover premiums for reimbursable medicines and MAs for the most vulnerable groups, such as patients aged 75 years and over, low-income pensioners and persons with disabilities. 

The state budget also covers the premiums of patients who have been paying high premiums for the cheapest medicines since the beginning of the year. Once these patients have accumulated a basket of premiums of a fixed amount, they will not have to pay a premium for the cheapest medicines at the pharmacy until the end of the year. 
1% of the budget for the administration of CHIF

Almost EUR 41 million from the CHIF is planned for the functioning of the compulsory health insurance system. These funds will account for around 1% of the CHIF budget and will be used to finance the activities of the NHIF, the smooth consolidation of the NHIF and the territorial health insurance funds, the efficiency of the compulsory health insurance system, including the maintenance of the information systems managed by the NHIF, the issuing of the European Health Insurance Cards and other administrative issues. Funding will also be made available for important information technology projects.              

In 2025 EUR 3.7 million is foreseen to cover the operational costs of the State Social Insurance Fund. These funds will be used to cover the costs of collecting and remitting compulsory health insurance contributions to the CHIF budget.  

Significant reserve

The expected reserve in the CHIF budget for the coming year should amount to around EUR 625 million. The core part of this reserve should amount to EUR 59 million and the risk management part to EUR 566 million.

The CHIF budget for the coming year, together with fund balances, is expected to represent 5.7% of gross domestic product (GDP).

The draft 2025 CHIF budget will be discussed by the Government next week.
 

The NHIF invites you:

Last updated: 16-10-2024

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