CEE Events

The Stockholm Network and the Joze Pucnik Institute joined forces to organise a workshop on “The Future of Healthcare Reform in Slovenia”.

The event took place in Ljubljana on 25th November and was attended by around 35 people from the media, the health policy institute, the HTA body, government officials, insurers, medical schools and industry.

Natasa Sustar, Director of the Joze Pucnik Institute, presented the event and was followed by Helen Disney, CEO of the Stockholm Network, who introduced the CEE Ahead Programme. Both presentations were followed by a speech by the President of the Institute and MEP, Mijael Brejc, who spoke about Healthcare in the Slovenian and the European context and, finally, by Dr Meir Pugatch, Director of Research of the Stockholm Network, who gave his talk on “The Future of Healthcare Reform in Slovenia”. The presentations generated a lot of engagement from the audience during the Q&A session.

Background

Over the last 20 years Slovenia has undergone major economic and structural reforms, turning it into one of the most advanced systems in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.

A number of interesting policy innovations have already attracted the attention of external observers, including the unique combination of mandatory universal insurance and voluntary complementary insurance that has been adopted. Slovenian citizens now enjoy significant freedom of choice as far as their health insurance is concerned.

On other fronts, there is still more that can be done. Patients can find it difficult to attain swift access to innovative healthcare technologies despite a rapid growth in R&D expenditure and it is still not easy to find user-friendly healthcare information.

Indeed there are still plenty of issues to debate. How can Slovenia make sure it builds on the policy reforms it has adopted? What can other CEE countries learn from the Slovenian experience with healthcare reform, and should they follow the path of introducing a system which combines mandatory and voluntary insurances? Which other reforms could be introduced in Slovenia as well as in the CEE region as a whole, in order to improve the quality of healthcare? And, how can these policies be linked to strategic objectives at the pan-European level, such as the Lisbon Agenda goals, in which Slovenia recently played a key role, as part of its EU Presidency?

In Slovenian

Stockholm Network in Inštitut dr. Jožeta Pučnika sta združila moči pri obravnavi teh vprašanj in priredila delavnico Prihodnost zdravstvenih reform v Sloveniji.

Okrogla miza je potekala 25. novembra 2008 v Ljubljani. Razprave se je udeležilo 45 ljudi s področja medijev, vladnih služb, zavarovalništva, zdravstvenih inštitutov, šol in gospodarstva.

Direktorica Inštituta dr. Jožeta Pučnika, Nataša Šuštar, je predstavila dogodek in delovanje Inštituta, Helen Disney, direktorica Stockholm Network, pa je predstavila program CEE Ahead. Sledil je govor predsednika sveta Inštituta dr. Jožeta Pučnika, poslanca v Evropskem parlamentu, dr. Mihaela Brejca, ki je povedal nekaj besed o zdravstvu v slovenskem in evropskem kontekstu. Kot zadnji je svoj prispevek predstavil dr. Meir Pugatch, direktor Stockholm Network, ki govoril o »Prihodnosti zdravstvenih reform v Sloveniji«. Njegov prispevek je spodbudil precej odziva publike v zaključni razpravi.

Ozadje

V Sloveniji so bile v zadnjih 20 letih izvedene velike gospodarske in strukturne reforme, ki so jo spremenile v enega najnaprednejših sistemov v srednje- in vzhodnoevropski regiji.

Številne zanimive novosti so že pritegnile pozornost zunanjih opazovalcev, med drugim tudi edinstvena kombinacija splošnega obveznega in prostovoljnega dodatnega zavarovanja. Slovenski državljani danes uživajo precejšnjo svobodo izbire zdravstvenega zavarovanja.

Po drugi strani pa je mogoče storiti še več. Pacienti kljub nagli rasti porabe za raziskave in razvoj včasih nimajo hitrega dostopa do inovativnih zdravstvenih tehnologij. Prav tako ni enostavno najti uporabnikom prijaznih informacij o zdravstvenem sistemu.

Pravzaprav je še veliko vprašanj, o katerih bi bilo potrebno razpravljati. Kako lahko Slovenija nadgradi reforme, ki jih je sprejela? Česa se lahko iz slovenske izkušnje z reformo zdravstvenega sistema naučijo druge države srednje in vzhodne Evrope in ali naj ji sledijo z uvajanjem sistema kombinacije obveznega in prostovoljnega zavarovanja? Katere druge reforme bi lahko izpeljali v Sloveniji in v celotni srednje- in vzhodnoevropski regiji, da bi izboljšali kakovost zdravstva? In kako je mogoče takšno politiko povezati s strateškimi cilji na evropski ravni, kakršni so cilji programa lizbonske strategije, pri katerem je Slovenija v času svojega predsedovanja Evropski uniji igrala ključno vlogo?

Download Dr Meir Pugatch`s Presentation