The healthcare reform proposal put forward by Health Minister Vili Beros is disastrous for Croatian entrepreneurs, the people, and the economy as a whole, warned the Voice of Entrepreneurs (UGP) association on Tuesday.

The association was particularly critical towards the sections of the proposal that appeared in media reports on Monday, according to which sick leave and maternity leave will not be paid by the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) anymore, and that people under the age of 30 will lose the benefits they were entitled to until now.

“The question is who is going to pay for sick leave and maternity leave if the HZZO were to stop paying these allowances? Naturally, they once again want to pass everything on to entrepreneurs and citizens who are overburdened already. We consider this an absurd proposal because this health reform will probably additionally burden entrepreneurs who are already paying too much for unnecessary tax contributions,” UGP said in a press release.

It is ‘senseless’ for entrepreneurs to have to pay for the first 42 days of an employee’s sick leave, given that they already pay a contribution of 16.5 percent on gross salaries for health insurance, UGP said.

Minister: Singling out parts of health reform distorts the big picture

Health Minister Vili Beros on Monday commented on media reports that as part of the health reform, the highest participation fee would be raised and that sick leave would not be paid by the HZZO, saying that singling out parts of the reform created a ‘distorted picture’.

Jelena Karacic, the head of the Croatian Association for the Promotion of Patients’ Rights, also criticised the proposal, saying it illustrated an “authoritarian and discriminatory way that insurance provider is treating the sick.”

“This only confirms that the HZZO does nothing for the insured. We have indicators to support this – the majority of patients’ complaints are linked to their insurance rights. Every day more and more treatment and diagnostics procedures are removed from the list of those covered by the HZZO. Now they are cutting the most basic elements, such as sick and parental leave,” Karacic told Index.hr news website.

She added it is ‘completely unbelievable’ that the public should be told that the HZZO would stop covering these costs without clearly determining who would take on the burden instead. “Those provisions are incomplete and all they do is unsettle both patients and employers, which certainly is not the case in other EU countries the ministry is looking up to.”