Health Minister Vili Beros on Thursday informed the parliament that there would be no increase in the price of supplemental health insurance policies.

“I reassure you that there will be no price rise for supplemental health insurance,” Beros said in response to opposition leader Pedja Grbin’s (SDP) claims, during a discussion on bills on healthcare protection and mandatory health insurance.

Commenting on a protest rally announced for Saturday by disgruntled doctors, Beros said that the protest would bring nothing good.

“Particularly if the protest is motivated only by material entitlements of those whose living standards are perceived by many as very good,” said the minister, recalling that the salaries of physicians have increased by 43% and that over 2,000 doctors have a higher salary than the prime minister.

It is important to fight for the wellbeing of patients, for the availability of healthcare protection and high-quality health services, said the minister.

In a comment on SDP MP Martina Vlasic-Iljkic’s warning that there is a shortage of doctors in Croatia, the minister responded that shortages were not due to inaction by the health authorities over the past few years, but due to decades of non-advertisement of residency vacancies.

“In Croatia there is no lack of doctors, they are just distributed in an uneven manner, all of them are in cities, and there is a shortage in communities that are unattractive to them,” the minister said.