On October 16th, 2020, the newly established two working groups of the Healthcare Committee started their work with a joint meeting. Working Group I Lead is Dr. Boryana Alexieva, Janssen (J&J) and Working Group II Lead is Sava Todorov, MSD Bulgaria.

The main discussion at the meeting was: Healthy workforce will address the demographic crisis, as it will contribute to productivity, GDP growth, and society’s wellbeing. Therefore, two main priorities were defined by the working groups:

• Changing the perception to Healthcare as an “investment” and not (only) as spending – main topic of Working group I

“Health is a value in itself and precondition for economic prosperity. People’s health influences economic outcomes in terms of productivity, labor supply, human capital and public spending. The other direction is how investing in healthcare could contribute from a small country like Bulgaria in the overall direction of the EU goals of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”, said Boryana Alexieva, Janssen (J&J), Lead of Working group I.

• Finding an additional funds to increase the investment in HC – main topic of Working group II

“The idea of ​​Group II is to work on specific solutions for system optimization, additional and alternative financing of the health system”, said Sava Todorov, MSD Bulgaria, Lead of Working group II.

Members of the working groups include senior professionals from all Healthcare companies and other members of AmCham Bulgaria.