ZAGREB, Dec 16 (Hina) - Croatian Health Minister Zeljko Reiner on +Wednesday said the health sector would end 1998 with a US$484 +million debt, but added the government believed chances were very +good the debt would be settled.+
Reiner spoke at a special session of the parliament's House of +Counties.+ The Lower House began the session by discussing a report on the +health sector in the period between 1995 and 1998.+ The report was motioned by the parliamentary benches of the ruling +Croatian Democratic Union and by the Social Democratic Party, and +was drafted by the government.+ The Lower House's four-day agenda also includes a debate on the +draft state budget for 1999, which is in its second reading.+ Reiner said the key problem in the health sector at the moment was +the unbalance between revenue and expenditure. + Health is financed by contributions from taxpayers, but in th
ZAGREB, Dec 16 (Hina) - Croatian Health Minister Zeljko Reiner on
Wednesday said the health sector would end 1998 with a US$484
million debt, but added the government believed chances were very
good the debt would be settled.
Reiner spoke at a special session of the parliament's House of
Counties.
The Lower House began the session by discussing a report on the
health sector in the period between 1995 and 1998.
The report was motioned by the parliamentary benches of the ruling
Croatian Democratic Union and by the Social Democratic Party, and
was drafted by the government.
The Lower House's four-day agenda also includes a debate on the
draft state budget for 1999, which is in its second reading.
Reiner said the key problem in the health sector at the moment was
the unbalance between revenue and expenditure.
Health is financed by contributions from taxpayers, but in the last
eight years the number of insured persons has dropped by some
400,000, which has resulted in reduced revenue.
The number of pensioners, the most needy of health care, had grown
by 300,000, said the Minister, adding health costs had also been
augmented by state-of-the-art equipment, keeping health salaries
in step with other workers' salaries, and the introduction of Value
Added Tax.
Reiner said the stated higher costs had only recently begun leaving
a negative mark on the health sector.
He added that certain indicators, such as children mortality and
general mortality, ranked health care in Croatia among the best in
countries in transition and close to health care in developed
European countries.
The Health Minister believes the debts could be settled through
health reforms and especially a different health financing
concept.
Besides contributions, Reiner suggested the health sector be
financed through budgetary means earmarked for the health care of
the most sensitive groups, such as children and people over 65, and
by introducing additional insurance.
Finance Minister Borislav Skegro rejected claims that the
introduction of VAT had negatively affected the health system.
He said budgetary earmarking for health to date and increased
budgetary transfers in 1999 greatly surpassed VAT's effect on
health business.
Skegro stressed the government had realised what the problems were
and was taking a series of steps to rehabilitate the health sector.
The government would do all in its power to improve the payment of
revenue with the Croatian Health Insurance Bureau as a way of
eliminating a series of extant problems, Skegro concluded.
(hina) ha jn