Figure 1
Above the timeline, the boxes describe major policy changes: 1990: “Decentralized health care system. Local government control”. 1993: “Introduction of performance financing, the H D R G system. Presence of first management control system”. 2004: “Limited Performance Financing. Hospital-level budget caps”. 2006: “Start of: E U-financed Hospital development. Focus on system-level efficiency. Cut back of hospital capacity”. 2012: “Centralized healthcare. Government control. New health care agency, maintainer of hospitals. ‘Giga-ministry’ (education, social care, culture, sport) instead of the Ministry of Health”. 2016: “National health controlling system installation”. 2020: “Reform of the employment status, separate the public and private sectors”. This box is gray-shaded. 2021: “Healthcare transferred to Ministry of Interior. Maintained by the National Directorate General for Hospitals”. The text “Ministry of Interior” is highlighted in red. 2023: “concentration of certain services”. Two arrows from the box in 1990 and 2006 point to the box in 2012.Milestones in Hungarian healthcare sector in the last four decades