Healthcare in Slovenia

[2] The Slovenian healthcare system is a conservative-health care model financed through a mandatory insurance program called the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia, HIIS (Slovene: Zavod za zdravstveno zavarovanje Slovenije) with contributions paid by both employers and employees.

However, not all costs are borne by the mandatory insurance scheme (though children's healthcare is fully covered).

[4] The state fund does fully cover most medical services (treatments, prescription drugs, hospitalization, etc.).

[7] With the wave of rapid modernization in the early 1990s, the newly independent Republic of Slovenia attempted to resolve long-standing issues with the nation's healthcare system, culminating with the overhaul of the system with the passage of the Health Care and Health Insurance Act of 1992.

There is a higher level of satisfaction among those who were treated by a private practitioner than of those who went to a public physician (Toš et al. 2004).

[7] There has been an upward trend in the number of dentists as well, however, the rate of increase is lower than for physicians.

In 2012, Slovenia paid 9.3% of its GDP on healthcare and long-term care, the same as the OECD average.

These reforms included lists of drugs that would be reimbursed by the national health insurance fund, as well as price reductions that were negotiated between both the government and pharmaceutical companies.

[9] One of the ways Slovenia is trying to tackle the aforementioned issues of long waiting lines, staff shortage, and overworked employees is by the use of zVEM, an e-government platform dedicated to healthcare.

[11] zVEM not only helps with the problems the government and healthcare institutions are facing, but it also makes many processes easier by providing secure access to data and different e-health services to all users with Slovenian health insurance.

Via the portal, services like ePrescription, eOrdering, and Central Patient Data Register are made available after the initial sign-up process has been completed.

[12] The increase in the number of users in 2021 was due to restrictions imposed to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic by requiring residents to have a certificate as proof of vaccination or a COVID test.

Signing up for zVEM requires a digital ID, which is issued by the government, and this process takes a lot of time.