Slovenia

'Analysis of the health system in Slovenia' reports:

• Optimizing service delivery
• Evaluating health financing
• Health system expenditure review
• Purchasing and payment
• Long-term care
• Making sense of complementary health insurance

The health system is relatively centralized. Parliament sets policy and approves relevant budgets. The Ministry of Health supervises the system and policy implementation. The National Institute of Public Health (Nacionalni inštitut za javno zdravje - NIJZ) supports healthcare governance and is responsible for most essential public health functions. Municipalities oversee organization and provision of primary care, but they play a limited role in decision making in the health system. The state owns almost the entire hospital capacity, most of the outpatient specialist care sector and all of tertiary care. 

Revenue flows to the health care system through (compulsory) health insurance contributions, general taxation, Voluntary Health Insurance (VHI) premiums and household out-of-pocket (OOP) spending. Compulsory health insurance contributions represent the largest share of the total revenue for health from public sources. National and local budget revenues mainly cover costs for capital investments and national public health programmes, and to ensure financial resources for socially vulnerable groups.

Until recently, premiums for VHI and household OOP payments were the main drivers of private spending on health as most people took out complementary VHI to help cover co-payments for public services. However, this element of the SHI system was abolished in 2024 and replaced by an additional fixed compulsory SHI contribution, which is anticipated to decrease private spending.

Primary care is provided mostly by a network of community-level primary health care centres, owned and managed by municipalities. GPs act as gatekeepers for accessing specialized care. Specialist outpatient activities at the secondary care level are performed in public and private hospitals, primary health care centres, private specialist practices and spas. Clinics and specialized institutes provide more complex health services at the tertiary care level. Despite past efforts, long waiting times for some specialist services persist. Inpatient hospital care is provided through a number of mainly public and some private hospitals.