Hungarian Government Seizes Control of Private Fertility Clinics

(Bloomberg) -- Hungary is taking over privately-owned fertility clinics, deepening the control exercised by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government over citizens’ private sphere and the country’s economy.

The European Union country is under the spotlight, clashing with the bloc over democratic norms as Orban advances policies that suppress civic groups and give him control over media outlets, courts and other formerly independent institutions.

The cabinet designated a state entity to run several clinics in Budapest and other cities Thursday, citing in a decree the need to stop a population decline. It took ownership of the clinics’ buildings and made their merger exempt from competition checks under a “national strategic” importance rule. In an announcement on state news service MTI, the government said medicine, treatment and tests for people who struggle to conceive will become free next year.

The government has been trying to reverse the demographic trend which has seen the eastern European country’s population dip below 10 million. Recent measures such as subsidies for home and car purchases for families haven’t yielded clear results at a time when the citizenry of developed nations declines across Europe.

Waiting Lists

One of the premier’s signature moves was to nationalize privately-managed pensions. He has completed an ideological turnaround from liberal anti-communist youth activist to Christian nationalist firebrand.

The state has already been subsidizing many treatments at the affected clinics, yet the government has argued it wants to make treatments more widely available. Hungary has about 150,000 couples suffering from infertility, MTI said, citing Katalin Novak, the state secretary in charge of family and youth affairs.

“There can be no waiting lists in the future for infertility treatment,” Novak was cited as saying.

The Hungarian Medical Chamber, the profession’s main lobby group, said in an emailed response that it can’t comment on the clinics because it doesn’t have sufficient information on the planned changes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Rose at rrose10@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Marton Eder

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