By: Moja Dolenjska
The Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia (ZZZS) recorded a profit of nearly 80 million euros last year, according to preliminary data. At the same time, they now plan to increase the price of mandatory health insurance, which was until recently voluntary.
Well, if you ask Luka Mesec (Levica), Robert Golob (Svoboda), or probably even Tanja Fajon (SD) today, they will say they abolished voluntary health insurance. They turned it into mandatory insurance – but they no longer emphasise this. They do not shout about it anymore.
Now, they are planning to raise the price of this mandatory-voluntary health insurance from €35 to €37.17 per month. That is an increase of €2.17 (6.2%) or €26.04 per year. This means citizens’ incomes (including pensions) will effectively be lower by that amount, while ZZZS’s revenues will significantly increase. However, waiting times – mainly caused by ZZZS – will not be any shorter because of it.
The Health Care and Health Insurance Act, passed by the coalition (Svoboda, SD, and Levica), stipulates that the mandatory health contribution must be adjusted once a year. According to the law, the contribution is updated every March 1st based on the growth of the average gross salary in Slovenia over the previous year, as reported by the Statistical Office.
In other words, just like pensions increase, so does the mandatory-voluntary health insurance contribution increases.