The prices of all medical services have temporarily increased by 2.1% for the period from July 1 to the end of the year. Thus during this period medical institutes will receive additional 16 million euros from the planned surpluses at the health insurance fund budget. The government adopted the decision despite the opposition of the Assembly of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia.

The demand of the members of the Assembly was that the surplus should be distributed selectively, only for those services for which the waiting periods are the longest. However, the money will be distributed also to those with surpluses, e.g. pharmacies which already have accumulated surpluses of 52 million euros.

16 million euros is a small amount when compared to the total amount spent on health care is considered – two and a half billion euros, therefore it should be spent with special care. The government however made the decision to distribute the money to all health care providers, regardless of their business performance. Hospitals have improved their performance in last two years – in 2013, the loss in 11 hospitals exceeded 3% of the total revenue, and only one last year; last year the loss off all hospitals added up to 11 million euros, the larger part of which was created by the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, namely more than 9 million euros.

A rise of prices of services will result in additional 3.7 million euros for UMC Ljubljana, which will be spent on services thus reducing waiting periods; so far no information has been given as to which services. The choice is wide – hundreds of patients all over the country are facing unacceptable waiting periods – in rheumatology and neurology departments, for magnetic resonance, for orthopaedic surgeries, and the list goes on.