Hospitals have generated losses of 160 million euros, which may be covered by the budget. But red figures have been simply passing between Slovenia's hospitals and health care budget for a long time. Systematic measures are needed.
At the beginning of September we will know the government's decision about covering the hospitals’ roughly 160 million euro losses. Discussions at a professional level are taking place between financial and health minsters.
In 2005, due to fulfilling the regulations for accepting the euro currency and taking control of public finances, the debt of the health and pension budget was moved to the national budget through an intervention law. This involved moving 120 million euros to cover the losses of the health insurance fund. This system worked for several years and the balance of the insurance fund is still even. But financial problems broke out at a lower level, in hospitals and other institutions. "The loss, which would otherwise be shown in the health budget, was thus passed on to health institutions. And this is the situation we have today," commented Helena Kamnar, state secretary at the ministry of finance at that time.
Discussions on covering the losses in the health care sector have restarted after more than ten years. It is high time – says Kamnar – that the insurance fund starts paying providers at cost price. In this way, it would be easier to find out how much money is really missing. And then we might be able to avoid the constant restoration of losses.

Al. Ma., Zdenka Bakalar, Radio Slovenija, translated by A. L.