The Croatian Pensioners Union on Friday asked Finance Minister Zdravko Maric and Health Minister Milan Kujundzic to raise the supplementary health insurance census to HRK 2,321, which is the Croatian poverty threshold for a single pensioner.

The union proposes that the income census be determined every year in line with the poverty threshold which the national statistical office determines every year.

The union says in a press release that pensions will soon be indexed for the second time this year and that the 3.13% increase of the lowest pensions could result in about 10,000 pensioners losing the right to free health insurance.

With the last indexation, more than 3,000 pensioners received HRK 40-50 higher pensions, losing free supplementary health insurance, as a result of which they had to start paying HRK 70 a month, the union says, adding that now 250,000 of those with the lowest pensions are at risk of losing supplementary health insurance.

The income census has not been changed since 2004, which means that everyone whose income per family member exceeds HRK 1,516, as well as single pensioners with incomes exceeding HRK 1,939, will lose that right.

About 173,000 pensioners currently exercise the right to free supplementary health insurance. Since 2012, the number of supplementary health insurance policies paid by the state has dropped from 740,000 to 480,000, the union says.

(EUR 1 = HRK 7.4)