We are getting close to a public election in Hungary, which is about Hospital and Tuition fees. The current government introduced these so far unheard and unexperienced fees to the Hungarian nations, and this created a controversial situation here. I am not going to note my political views, nor will I share which way I am going to vote, I just want to introdce the topic and the system, as far as I know it.
This is the Notation for my voting place and time I got in the mail yesterday, I thought I would post it up. (Sorry for the crappy scan) For the rest of the story, read on below.
I said in the title “Hospital Fees”, but what it means actualy is that currently, all Hungarians when visiting your general doctor, or any other hospital facilities, we need to pay a so called “visit fee” of 300HUF currently. If you have a fever, and you go to your doctor to get some prescriptions for cold-medicine, you will pay this 300HUF, and if you need to go back to see the doc in a day or two, you will pay it again.
There is another fee called “Hospitalization day fee”, which is currently I think 500 or 600HUF and is paid for every day you spend at the hospital. If you are hospitalized for 10 days, you will end up with a bill of around 5000-6000HUF.
Lastly, the Tuition. Our universities have always been free, as long as they were state owned and run. Starting recently, there is a tuition fee you pay when attending the Universities of Hungary, which led to some protests among students and teachers.
I must say I am sorry for the lack of details, but as I am no longer a student, and I am nearly never ill, I don’t have the experience of any of these above mentined fees, and I haven’t paid a single penny so far. And if the elections are in favour of the Opposition party who would like the complete dismissal of these fees, then I won’t pay this in the near future either.
Basically the current Left Wing party introduced these new fees and they want to stick to them, and the opposition Right Wing party would like to put an end to these newly introduced fees. The tension was built up so much in Hungary which is anyways already split into two parts politically speaking, that the Opposition party started collecting signatures, and once reaching the limit set by our federal laws, they were leagaly appealing for a Public elections in this matter.
So the Sunday after this coming on, on the 9th of March, Hungarian will go to the polls and decide about the fees. If you are a Hungarian, I am sure you would like to have your opinion expressed, but please only do so at the polls, and not in the comment section. Like I said, I would like to remain neutral in all political matters that I introduce to my blog.
Cheers