By: Spletni časopis
“This is that voluntary contribution which they took away from the insurance companies so that they would not raise it, then turned it into a mandatory one, and have now increased it for the second time. At the same time, according to their statements, they created a loss of 240 million and paid an additional 33 million in compensation to several insurance companies.”
This is how the former head of the Financial Administration, Ivan Simič, commented on the fact that the voluntary health contribution will become more expensive for the second time as of March 1. The voluntary contribution was spectacularly abolished by the coalition of Svoboda, SD, and Levica because the insurance companies, mostly state‑owned or publicly owned, intended to raise it. The argument was that private companies should not be allowed to make even more profit. In reality, the government merely transferred the payment of the insurance to the Health Insurance Institute and transformed it into a second mandatory health contribution. It is also the first such contribution imposed on pensioners, who had never paid flat‑rate contributions before.
For long‑term care, hundreds of millions remain unused, and the service does not exist
Later, they added a long‑term care contribution, from which they collected around 35 million euros from pensioners last year. By the end of the year, however, the government, partly due to chaos at the Ministry for a Solidary Future, failed to spend 140 million euros collected for this purpose.
The decision to increase the contribution, which everyone pays in the same amount, on March 1 was signed by Minister Valentina Prevolnik Rupel. Former Financial Administration head Ivan Simič reacted to the second price increase on X as follows:
An overview of what the voluntary contribution looked like before its “abolition” and what the new state levy looks like today is as follows:
| Date | Contribution Status | Amount (€) | Note |
| Before | Voluntary (VZZ) | 35,67 | Optional payment |
| January 2024 | Mandatory (OZP) | 35,00 | “Abolition” and nationalisation |
| March 2025 | First increase | 37,22* | Adjustment |
| March 2026 | Second increase | 39,36 | Current amount |
The promises that abolishing supplementary insurance would protect citizens’ wallets and drive out “profiteers” have evaporated in a series of official decrees with new, higher amounts. Instead of the promised functioning public healthcare system, we have received only a new, mandatory, and steadily increasing tax that does not spare even those with the lowest pensions. Meanwhile, millions for long‑term care are piling up in the accounts of the Health Insurance Institute, money the state cannot or does not know how to use, while citizens pay more each month for services we wait longer and longer to receive.