Overview

Montenegro has recently made a major change to its system of health financing, switching to a fully tax-funded health insurance system in 2022. Population coverage is broad, including all residents of the country. However, out-of-pocket payments are high, accounting for 39% of current spending on health in 2019, and almost 10% of all households experienced catastrophic health spending in 2017. Despite these challenges, Montenegro has made progress in recent years in reducing unmet needs for medical examination.

One of the challenges for the health system is that data collection is fragmented, statistics are often not publicly available, and data are not sufficiently used for decision-making purposes. Major health threats include unhealthy diets, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and relatively poor air quality, with poverty and unemployment aggravating ill health and unmet needs. The COVID-19 pandemic led to substantial excess mortality, exceeding the WHO European Region average. Montenegro has a well-developed AMR action plan, but rates of antimicrobial consumption are high.