In the period January – December last year, a total of 2,188,583,880 KM was collected based on contributions for health insurance in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This is, as stated by the Tax Administration of the Federation of BiH, 196,984,927 KM or 9.89 percent more compared to the same period in 2023.
Every year the figure increases
If we look at the data of the FBiH Tax Administration from 2021 and 2022, which refer to the collection of health insurance contributions, we will see that every year this figure increases by nearly 200 million marks.
On the other hand, although funds are increasing, the state of healthcare in greater BiH. the entity is getting worse.
For a long time, no one has been satisfied with healthcare in FBiH, not even those who work there, especially the patients.
Outdated equipment, lack of staff, corruption, months-long waiting lists of the most difficult patients for medication and examinations… these are constantly present problems and have been for years.
The long-term trend of medical personnel leaving, especially doctors, continued last year.
According to the data of the Medical Chamber, in 2024, 33 doctors left Sarajevo Canton alone.
The new president of the Medical Chamber of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, dr. Rifat Rijad Zaid says that the cantonal chambers keep records on the departure of doctors, but the problem is that they do not know the exact numbers of doctors who have just graduated and left the Federation, and that number, as he points out, is not negligible.
Due to the departure of doctors, many public health institutions, even in larger cities, are struggling with a lack of specialists.
Doctors go to other countries primarily because of better salaries and working conditions, and in order to keep those who are still there, unions are constantly fighting with government representatives for better salaries for those they represent.
Patients do not have their own representatives, those who would fight for their rights, and they are left to fend for themselves.
If they are not satisfied with the wait and what they get as a service in public healthcare institutions, they always have the option to go to a private provider and get everything they need done there in a short time.
Where does the money go?
However, they have to pay for the service provided in a private health care facility, and they have to pay heavily, and no one will ask them if they have and how they will wait for their next salary or pension? Because for health you have to have it, even if it’s the last thing in your wallet.
No one is interested in the fact that contributions, including those for health insurance, are regularly deducted from your salary every month and for years, he writes. Factor.
Are you wondering where the money goes, that is, where did the more than two million KM that were taken from all of us in 2024 in the name of health insurance contributions end up and how did the citizens feel the increase in funds collected through the health services provided to them?
We will have to wait for an answer until May or June, when the FBiH Institute of Health Insurance and Reinsurance publishes complete data on the calculation and expenditure of funds collected in the previous year on behalf of health insurance contributions.
Until then, who’s alive, who’s dead…
