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Hungary has an area of 93 030 km2 and an estimated population of about 10 million. There are 19 counties and 3168 local-government areas, with elected mayors and governing bodies; these include the capital, Budapest, an independent administrative unit.

Hungary is a multiparty republic with a unicameral national assembly of 386 members. Executive power is exercised by the Government, headed by the Prime Minister.

The centre-right-party alliance Fidesz-KDNP won a two-thirds parliamentary majority in the April 2010 election, its first such victory since 1990. The Prime Minister is Viktor Orbán.

The new President, Pál Schmitt, took up his duties on 6 August 2010. The President is elected for a five-year term.

Hungary joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1999 and the European Union (EU) on 1 May 2004. Hungary took over EU presidency on 1 January 2011, in the framework of the trio of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, which is the first Presidency to function fully in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty rules. During the six month of Hungary’s presidency, more than 200 main events will take place, including 16 ministerial summits.

Health

The population is diminishing and life expectancy is below the average of the WHO European Region. In 2008 the average life expectancy at birth was 70.02 years for men (Region: 71.58; European Union (EU): 76.25) and 78.32 for women (Region: 79.22; EU: 82.3).

The health status of the Hungarian population is poor compared to its socioeconomic development. The leading causes of death comprise diseases that could be prevented by screening or early diagnosis.

The leading causes of death in 2008 were

• malignant neoplasm (standardized death rate (SDR): 241.73 per 100 000, all ages)
• diseases of the circulatory system (mainly acute myocardial infarction) (SDR: 428.59 per 100 000, all ages)
• ischaemic heart disease (SDR: 216.95 per 100 000, all ages)
• cerebrovascular diseases (SDR: 91.79 per 100 000, all ages)
• bronchitis/emphysema/asthma (SDR: 32.07 per 100 000, all ages)
• chronic liver disease and cirrhosis(SDR: 43.22 per 100 000, all ages)
• motor vehicle traffic accidents (SDR: 9.97 per 100 000, all ages)
• suicide and self-inflicted injury (SDR: 21.54 per 100 000, all ages)

Today every fifth or sixth newborn child in Hungary is Roma; this is the most marginalized minority group in the country, with much lower life expectancy than the Hungarian average.

Key public health problems

Health status of the population is poor, life expectancy is low compared with other countries, although life expectancy at birth has been rising steadily since 1993. The mortality due to circulatory system diseases and neoplasms, especially lung cancer is very high.

Mental health problems (high depression and suicide rates) represent a key problem in Hungary and have been included in current and previous biennial collaborative agreements.

Unhealthy lifestyles, particularly high tobacco and alcohol consumption, unhealthy nutrition and lack of physical activity (low health literacy) induce warning statistics and were addressed in the frame of WHO’s cooperation with Hungary.

Migration of Hungarian health professionals is an increasing concern, a long-term human resource strategy needs to be developed to keep highly qualified staff in the country.

The public expenditure on health in % of GDP decreased from 7.1% in 1994 to 5.2% in 2007 (which mirrors that cost-containment works effectively in the financing system, but also that the highly complex and fragmented resource pooling mechanisms are not able to collect adequate resources).

The expenditure on pharmaceuticals was specifically addressed in the Government’s reform policy, and the public spending for pharmaceuticals was significantly reduced by increasing the co-payment rates of the patients, although the share in the total health care expenditures is still very high in Hungary, accounting for about 31% of total health care spending.

Private expenditure on health is quite high: about 29% of the total health care expenditure. The equity aspects of the system and the measures are not yet studied by the National Health Insurance Fund Administration and the Government.