Evaluation of health-care-related cohesion-policy interventions in Hungary
Hungarian health-care development interventions have been evaluated in the cooperation of the HÉTFA Research Institute, the Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis, and the Revita Foundation. Besides a strong focus on
• outpatient care,
• the modernisation of the central register of medical equipment, and
• healthy lifestyle development projects,
the evaluators analysed the overall utilisation of health-care development resources, and their spatial distribution, too. The quantitative (statistical/econometric) part of the study deals with (1) the territorial targeting, (2) the direct results (availability and use), and (3) the short-term economic and health-related impacts of the interventions. Within this latter, mainly the impacts on
• the restructuring of out- and inpatient care,
• the number of days spent on sick leave, and
• the health care of patients with chronic diseases
were under scrutiny. The quantitative analysis carried out by the Budapest Institute forms an integral part of the evaluation, but with regard to those interested in detailed data and the methodology, we publish it as a separate document, too.
The evaluation has found that the EU resources spent on health care contributed to the policy aim of shifting health-care provision towards lower levels of progressivity, and that the territorial targeting of interventions was also appropriate: inhabitants of microregions with worse health-care indicators (higher avoidable mortality) received a higher ratio of funding compared both to the average, and to the distribution of regular funding. The main recommendations are related to the regulatory and financing system, the handling of human-resource problems in health care, and to the monitoring of health-care institutional operation.