Slovenian experience on health care reform

The health care system in Slovenia has undergone significant changes since 1992. The objectives were primarily economic and not medical, since the level of medical services rendered has been fairly high and there were limited needs for improvements. Many changes, such as privatization, have not yet achieved their main objective - improved efficiency and quality. We have, however, observed many positive results, such as the awareness of medical staff that the quality of the national health care system should not be taken as granted but should be based and developed on extremely careful planning. Health care reform packages are being designed primarily to address one important problem: cost containment. An important part of the reform was moving the major part of the health care budget outside of the state budget to make it more transparent and controllable and its use more subject to its primary intention.