Independent Member of Parliament Mirando Mrsić stated on Wednesday that the amendments to the Health Care Act, which the Ministry of Health has sent for public discussion, aim to sneak in the privatization of healthcare through the back door, to which we must “clearly say no.”
The law has been sent for public discussion in the shadow of ideological disputes over the Istanbul Convention, and it proposes the privatization of primary healthcare, which will allow the wealthy to receive treatment, while the poor will have to stay at home because they will not be able to pay for healthcare services, Mrsić said at a press conference in Parliament.
– The question we have had in offices so far – how can I help you, will change to – how will you pay for this, asserted Mrsić.
>>>By a majority vote of SDP members, Mirando Mrsić was expelled from the party
With the amendments to the law, doctors in primary care will become employers whose goal is profit, not treatment. Health centers as centers for prevention and primary care are being abolished, most offices will not operate on weekends, and there will also be a difference in status between hospital doctors and those in primary care.
The possibility of inheriting and purchasing an office is being introduced, but it is actually about buying insured persons, i.e., patients, says Mrsić and asks – have we come to the point where patients and health will become commodities? Croatia is a social state that must ensure equal healthcare for all citizens, which no reforms must jeopardize, he emphasized.
The Minister of Health boasts that the HZZO finished last year with a surplus of 250 million kuna, while forgetting that the system is in deficit by 9.5 billion kuna, and that he has done nothing in reforming the system but is introducing privatization, Mrsić said.
