National Assembly hosts lecture on healthcare and issues of Slovenia's public finances as part of the Harvesting Knowledge project

The President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Pavel Gantar, delivered a welcome address at the fourteenth public lecture in the Harvesting Knowledge project, prior to the continuation of the regular session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, 20 April 2010, in the main hall of the National Assembly. The lecture, entitled Healthcare and Issues of Slovenia?s Public Finances, was given by Matija Čok, PhD, Associate Professor in the area of monetary policy and finance at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Ljubljana.

At the public lecture, Dr Čok spoke about the healthcare system, which, in his opinion, will be under financial pressure resulting from demographic changes, even after the current financial crisis. Data show that the existing incomes of the population and enterprises do not allow the provision of substantial additional funds for healthcare and, additionally, the existing arrangement of financing compulsory health insurance is discriminatory against particular groups of insured persons. "There are not enough people declaring high incomes and paying taxes on them," said Dr Čok, adding that we should also consider how to finance the care of the elderly population in future: "The active population is declining and is under an increasing financial burden".

The existing incomes of the population and enterprises do not have much room for additional burdens from contributions. Consequently, according to Dr Čok, the fiscal reality will see that in future the majority of changes will affect expenditure on healthcare and the pension system. He stressed that, due to all the aforementioned, it would be worth considering the introduction of a ceiling for the burden of contributions ("cap") in a way that would be fiscally neutral.

For more information about the Harvesting Knowledge project and Dr Mitja Čok's lecture, please visit the website of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, and of the National Assembly, in the section Harvesting Knowledge. The next public lecture in the Harvesting Knowledge series is scheduled for Thursday, 18 May 2010, during the regular May session of the National Assembly.