According to Géza Kaáli-Nagy, Hundreds of Millions from the IVF Sector Also Went to Gyula Balásy’s Company

Géza Kaáli-Nagy still does not consider the nationalization of fertility clinics a good idea. He spoke about this on the ATV program Egyenes Beszéd. The founder of the Kaáli Institute, established in 1992, saw his clinic nationalized in 2019. The retired professor said he would not take it back, but if he could effectively help improve care, he would take part. In his view, the state is not a good manager, and he spoke of wastefulness, citing two examples.

Kaáli-Nagy said during the broadcast that he had seen a consulting contract that provided one doctor with 100 million forints for a single year. He also brought up Gyula Balásy, whose company New Land Media, according to him, had a contractual relationship with the Human Reproduction Directorate, the branch of the National Hospital Directorate General (OKFŐ) responsible for infertility care.

“In November 2023, Balásy’s company received 211 million forints. This field does not really need advertising. The state intended the money flowing here for treatments, not for siphoning funds away. This, for example, should be investigated, although it is only the tip of the iceberg,” the professor stated. He also said that the success rates of individual centers are not made public, so while Budapest or Győr may be successful, the national average, in his opinion, is still not as favorable as it could be.

Through the OKFŐ, we contacted the Human Reproduction Directorate to ask how they comment on Géza Kaáli-Nagy’s statements, whether they had contracts with Gyula Balásy’s companies, and if so, what results those contracts produced. If we receive answers to our questions, we will report on them.

Earlier this February, the state run Human Reproduction Directorate (HRI) published for the first time the success rates of Hungary’s IVF clinics. The report used data from the National Human Reproduction Registry, which makes it possible to determine how many procedures were performed on how many patients, as well as the estimated cumulative birth rate. The cumulative birth rate shows, on an annual basis, the ratio between births resulting from assisted reproduction procedures and the number of egg retrievals performed during the same period. According to the HRI’s official report, the 13 domestic institutions achieved a 26.4 percent success rate in 2024. This means that children were born from this proportion of the ovarian stimulation procedures performed.

Among the 10,397 women treated in 2024, a total of 3,089 children were born, corresponding to a birth rate of nearly 30 percent. (This is not the same as the estimated cumulative live birth rate.) The success rate first exceeded 20 percent in 2023; between 2017 and 2023 it hovered around 18–19 percent, which is considered low by European standards.

The large scale nationalization of fertility centers began shortly before Christmas 2019, when the government announced that it would take six private fertility clinics into state ownership and make screening tests, treatments, and related medications free of charge. In 2021, legislation was passed stipulating that from July 1, 2022, artificial insemination procedures in Hungary could only be performed at state run fertility centers.

Two years ago, the European Commission launched infringement proceedings against the Hungarian authorities because, according to the Commission, the nationalization of the IVF sector violates one of the fundamental principles of the EU single market.