Health Minister Anda Caksa told reporters after the government's meeting that this would make an extra €7m available for healthcare this year.
The Health Ministry previously said that if the government took over hospitals' debt obligations, the financial burden on healthcare would be reduced greatly, averting the risk of healthcare institutions being unable to honor their debt obligations. The repayment of these loans has a major impact on hospitals' finances.
If these obligations are taken over by the state, healthcare institutions will be able to provide full amount of services paid for by the state, which is in interest of both patients and the national economy overall, said the ministry.
According to the Health Ministry, healthcare institutions that have taken out state-underwritten loans mostly provide healthcare services paid for by the state, and they have limited opportunities to earn additional profits that they could use to repay the loans.
The Health Ministry proposed that the government take over hospitals' debt obligations by capitalizing the state-underwritten loans, and the government approved the proposal today.
According to the government's decision, €7m earmarked in the Health Ministry's budget for the repayment of state-underwritten loans would be redistributed among budget subprorgrams on hospital medicine.
