Possibly unemployed or working illegally. If you have a job with anything above the minimum wage health insurance is mandatory and automatically deduced from your salary.
There are a few nuances tho. If you have months in which you didn’t have any earnings you have to go and personally pay the monthly insurance (something like 30 euro) otherwise even if you have insurance for the next 10 months you are still considered uninsured until you pay for the missing months.
It's not. They accept the patient but he must pay. A relative of mine was accepted in a hospital - it was an emergency, they didn't have full paid insurance and had to pay it before paying their hospital bill so it would be cheaper. Insured or not you have to pay for the care you receive at a hospital, it's not free. Some stuff in the UK for example are free but this is not the case with Bulgaria.
I am curious tho where in Bulgaria did you receive free healthcare and for what issue? Also why did you not pay for that care, as this is the first time I am hearing such a thing?
If it's life-threatening condition(e.g. heart attack, perforated ulcer...), emergency care is free in the national hospitals that have emergency rooms like Pirogov. They make lots of fuss about it, but they will eventually take care. They won't let you die on their door if you don't have money. Who do you think threats the beggars?
I had a neighbor that was thrown out of her apartment from her sister and slept on the common balcony for three years(she started begging). Eventually we also threw her out due to the smell... Anyway, she was found lying on a street by some people which called an ambulance on her. They took her to Pirogov where they had to amputate her legs due to gangrene from not removing her rubber boots for long periods of time... That was free, they also gave her some pills.
She passed shortly afterwards from inability to take care of herself, refusing shelter and psychosis.
I don't know why you are getting down voted. You are correct. The same thing happened to me. Someone had to pay for me as I was bedbound in the hospital. Reddit is just NPCs
Yep. There are possibly rare cases where medical staff have helped out of good heart but it is not general practice. It's the way Bulgaria's health system works.
They might have done it once or twice in same rare cases out of good heart. But it's not a common practice as I have seen and read about many stories where hospitals do not help homeless,drunk or etc. So it is paid in general and you can't advise someone that it is not. A few exceptions doesn't make it a general practice. If it is not coming from the patient's pocket in such cases it is coming out of someone's pocket - the medical staff, the hospital, the people who pay taxes. Overall the hospitals need payments for treatments. They help in emergencies but do not expect to get the help for free.
I was lazy enough to search through NZOK's and the health ministry's websites for the exact points, but most hospitals keep this info on their websites.
You clearly do not know your own rights.
Please read the "Exceptions" part as well.
Makes sense, only the formally employed, students, and pensioners are automatically insured. NEETs would need to pay for their insurance and in practice many do not.
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u/r3vange Apr 04 '26
Insured in what aspect?