On Tuesday evening, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Human Capacities Bence Rétvári told public television channel M1 that the migrant resettlement quotas proposed by the European Union would burden the Hungarian healthcare and social system with billions of forints of extra costs.
He said the “modern-era migration” would pose several types of challenges and risks. He said migrants would bring in diseases long eradicated in Europe, as well as new exotic diseases. He said that out of the migrants crossing the Hungarian border only a small fraction of five percent went through mandatory health screenings, and even that cost the Hungarian healthcare system EUR 1.12 million.
Should the European Union implement the proposed quota system – challenged by Hungary – it would need a significant increase in the number of specialized and basic healthcare doctors, which in itself would add an extra annual burden of HUF 10 billion for the healthcare system and thus the central budget.