Healthcare in Slovenia

We have  a healthcare system that bases on social health insurance mostly. Employers are obligated by law to pay basic health insurance for the employees, additional health insurance is optional and while the basic is administered by a public insurance agency only, the additional one is covered by private insurance companies. Children and young adults (if they are still in the process of getting an education) have full health insurance coverage from the public budget.
If unemployed, for citizens, the cost of basic health insurance is around 11eur/month, the additional depends on the insurance company and how much coverage you are choosing.
If you are a EU citizen you can get an European insurance card in your country of origin and then have the same health coverage in any EU country.
For non EU citizens...well, I'm not very sure. I guess..if employed, there shouldn't be problems, it should be the same as for citizens, the unemployed can maybe talk reimbursement from home country situated insurance companies.

The problem with slovenian health care is that the concept of private healthcare is relatively new. All hospitals are public hospitals, the private sector is still very small and operating with public concessions also. We basically don't think healthcare is a sector that should be left to the laws of market. So in Slovenia we all have the same health treatment, it is a souvenir (good or bad, it depends:)) from our previous socialist regime. Poor or rich, we all wait in the same line, if there is one or some go abroad for a specific operation if they can afford it but is usually not necessary and more of a sign of luxury (per example our president had an operation in Salzbourg and that initiated a public debate if he doesn't trust in our healthcare;).

I apologize for my English, i'm not a native speaker and hope i've been of some help.

Hi,

In order to help expats and soon-to-be expats, we would like to invite you to share your experience on this topic, with updated info on the healthcare system.

Thank you in advance,

Julie
Expat.com Team

Even though I've only been in Slovenia a few months I actually have quite extensive experience with the healthcare system  . I've been to the emergency room, to a local health clinic and to the main hospital in Ljubljana, I've also used the ambulance service once because my girlfriend became very ill. All in all I have to say I was highly impressed with the Slovenian helathcare system. We were always seen promptly, all the staff spoke excellent English and were very helpful and I really have nothing but praise for Slovenia's healthcare. If you are able I would highly recommend that you get the EU health insurance card. I'm not sure about other places, but in Ireland where I'm from it's totally free and it means you'll pay nothing at the ER in Slovenia and probably about 2-3 euro for any prescriptions that you get.

Hope this helps!

We retired early from the UK, so although we're still eligible to pay tax on our company pension in the UK but it's not enough to be taxable, we do not pay National insurance so we are not covered by the UK. Hence our difficulties in sorting this out. We have two young  children and they are currently free. We pay from our income a percentage of our pension each, this covers the basic health care then we pay again for the top up private cover  for more serious cover. Once we reach the age we can claim our UK state pension then we will be issues with a S1 form and the UK will cover the Slovenian state charge we are currently charged for, but will think we will still need the private cover. Apparently the Slovenian health care charge for us as pensioners is based on whatever your Net income is it's supposed to be 5.8% of income each. But it's not as easy as that and although our income is Gross they are currently charging us as net, so adding onto income money that we do not get. We are currently trying to resolve this problem and it's a fair challenge at the moment. You can only use the EU health card issued free in the UK If you are a visitor and not resident or becoming resident as we discovered. Once the issuing country or Slovenia health care realises that you are more than just a visitor problems will arise as you try to use the EU health card, and you may find yourself in difficulty should you need health care.
Dispite these issues we have found so far that the health service in Slovenia seems to be quite good.

You can't get any unless you are employed or have a permanent residence permit. You can't get a permanent residence permit for five years and I haven't been able to after ten.

You can't get a regular job because it is too expensive for employers to employ you legally so unless you have some really extraordinary talent you'll be working on the side. 

You can't get any health insurance for that. If you are unemployed you can't get any health insurance except if you are on welfare benefits and you can't get those without a permanent residence permit, and you can't get that even if you own a house in Slovenia.

In fact you could live full time in your house and without a temporary residence permit you would be regarded as a tourist for bureaucratic purposes, and probably be expected to pay a tourist tax for every night you stayed in your own house. 

I don't know if that would actually happen: I have a temporary permit, which is about as much use as a cardboard toilet.

Even if you can get basic health insurance you will find you still have to pay for medical treatment as health insurance in Slovenia is just a big mafia, and most of the things that might actually happen to you aren't covered anyway - and that is true for natives too.

So then you are supposed to buy the supplementary insurance, but you can't buy that unless you have the basic insurance, and you can't get that.  Even THEN not everything is covered.

The boss of the state health insurance office where I live was very resistant to providing the "positive list" i.e. the what is covered by the basic insurance.  He didn't even know how to copy and paste on a computer.  You can get some cover for six months with an EHIC. Otherwise if you are having a heart attack or something your best bet is to go on holiday to Austria and have it there.

You can check out the Great Health Unsurance Questionnaire at www.aaa.si/q

Nothing drastically wrong with the actual medical facilities or staff, at least in the larger centres. But do not expect any reliable information about your situation as a foreigner from the natives.

Like most legal issues here it all sounds fine and dandy in theory, enough to please the eurocrats, but the reality isn't.  Do let me know if you get the answers to the Questionnaire. You won't.

And some of my employment related opinions here:
http://www.sloveniatimes.com/ever-more- … ment_29389