Imagine this – out of 63 hospitals in Croatia, a staggering 62 are running in the red! Yes, you read that right! Hospital directors and the Croatian Association of Healthcare Employers are sounding the alarm as a new decision by the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) threatens to further collapse an already fragile healthcare system.
Dr. Dražen Jurković, director of the Association of Healthcare Employers in Croatia, bluntly states that the new funding model for hospitals is unsustainable and legally questionable. HZZO has decided to slash advance payments to hospitals from 90% down to just 10%, leaving the rest for execution, which he calls a recipe for disaster.
Picture this: only one hospital operated with a positive balance by the end of last year, while all others were in the red! That means 62 hospitals are bleeding money, and this is not just a number – it’s a red flag for the entire system.
Jurković points out the absurdity that the system rewards those who accumulate more debt! Instead of solving problems, they pile up, and in the end, the government – that is, all of us – will foot the bill.
HZZO claims it wants to encourage hospitals to be more responsible and better organized, but the way they’re going about it is, to put it mildly, catastrophic.
This isn’t just a hospital problem; it’s a problem for all of us – patients, healthcare workers, and taxpayers. If this continues, we’ll soon have a healthcare system that simply can’t function.
Will the authorities finally grasp the seriousness of the situation, or will we wait for the system to completely collapse?
Got thoughts on this mess? Maybe you’ve felt the impact yourself? Drop a comment below – let’s shake things up together!
