The current top-up insurance system, which most Slovenians are enrolled in to ensure that they get full cover, will be abolished in favour of a fully state-run scheme made up of the existing health care contributions plus a new contribution based on income.
Health Minister Dorjan Marusic would not go into the details of the new contribution today, saying only that it would be collected by the Tax Administration and would be based on the amount of income tax paid by the individual.
The new contribution would bolster solidarity in health care and lower the financial burden on the majority of citizens in securing health cover.
Social services, such as funeral fees, as well as non-essential ambulance transport and natural spa therapy that is not an extension of hospital treatment are to be excluded from the list of services paid from the health purse.
A public debate will be held on the proposals for curbing the basket of services, Marusic announced, adding that there were no complaints from cabinet ministers to the proposal to eliminate services that are not strictly health-related.
He said that efforts will be instead made to re-channel some of the saved resources to areas currently neglected, where waiting lines are still long despite improvements in recent times.
Many patients, including cancer patients, are still forced to wait too long for certain diagnostics services, the minister said.
To finance the basket of services envisaged by the Health Ministry under the plan, the state would have to raise an additional EUR 244m per year in addition to the money already collected from health care contributions. This will be done with the new contribution fee, said Marusic.
Some of the funds would also be collected through new duties on unhealthy products, such as sugary drinks and sweets. The aim is to reinvest the money collected from the duties into programmes of prevention.
The plan also envisages restructuring of public health institutions by promoting greater networking and cooperation among them as well as by giving them greater independence in running their affairs.
Health infrastructure would therefore be transferred from the ministry to the institutions to manage, while the ministry would assume a regulative role.
Moreover, the health purse operator, ZZZS, would assume a more proactive role in ordering goods and services in a bid to give it more leverage in price negotiations.
SOURCE: The Slovenia Times
