The short story of co-payments for health care services in Hungary – lessons for neighbouring countries

The introduction of co-payments for using health care services is a relatively new issue for most of the Central-Eastern European (CEE) countries. Some CEE countries, like Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic have similar experiences with the introduction of such co-payments. These fees were met with a cold reception by the population and also political resistance, which led to the abolishment of these payments in Slovakia as well as in Hungary. Our paper focuses on the experiences of Hungary, where co-payments for health care services were introduced in February, 2007 and abolished one year later as a result of a population referendum. Hungarian experiences can serve as a lesson for policy makers from other CEE countries to develop sustainable patient payment policies.