SARAJEVO, JUNE 9 (ONASA) – Centers of Civil Initiatives (CCI) and civil society organizations, which gather patient users of the services of the Solidarity Fund of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at a round table held together with representatives of relevant institutions, confirmed the necessity of compliance with the Law on Health Insurance of the FBiH when is the financing of the Fund.
The round table was attended by representatives of the FBiH Ministry of Health, representatives of the working bodies of the FBiH Parliament – Committee on Health, as well as the Institute of Health Insurance and Reinsurance of the Federation of BiH, and representatives of the FBiH Ministry of Finance who did not express interest in participating in the round table were also invited.
The participants of the round table once again pointed out that the amount of financial resources collected for the work of the Fund is not enough to meet the needs of patients in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that as a result we are witnessing waiting lists for certain types of services, which directly endangers the health of patients in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Precisely because of this, there is an evident need to undertake concrete and urgent measures by the Government of FBiH that will enable health services for patients at the moment of the need for the same.
“It is a completely paradoxical fact that we are talking about the fact that the FBiH Government is breaking the law, that is, it is not financing the work of the Solidarity Fund to the extent that it has committed to according to the current law. We are really worried because we, as citizens, as representatives of associations, civil society, now have to find a way to force the Government to respect the Law” – said Merima Spahić from the Association for the Development of Society “Kap”.
It was especially emphasized that the BIH Health Insurance Law clearly prescribes the method of financing the Fund, but that the Government of FBiH, as one of the obligors of financing the Fund, continuously makes significantly smaller allocations from the FBiH Budget for this purpose than is prescribed by the Law.
By not acting according to the Law, the FBiH Government avoided paying its obligation in the amount of 1.53 billion BAM in the first two decades of the existence of the FBiH Solidarity Fund.
“The FBiH government has not fulfilled its obligations defined by law for many years. We all watch on social networks how money is being asked for children and we see various frauds in that field. We are losing trust in the system, in the institutions, in the state, in our country, in people, just because someone doesn’t want to respect the law. If the law doesn’t apply to everyone, then we have deeper and more serious problems,” said Marin Bago from the “Fortuna” Association from Mostar at the round table.
We remind you that the Centers of Civil Initiatives, civil society organizations, which gather patient users of the Solidarity Fund services of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, have previously launched an initiative towards the FBiH Parliament to find opportunities to prioritize the problem of inadequate financing of the FBiH Solidarity Fund by the FBiH Government.
The importance of the submitted initiative was recognized by the Committee for Economic and Financial Policy of the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament, which at the last session tasked the FBiH Government to adopt the budget request of the FBiH Health Insurance and Reinsurance Fund during the rebalancing of the Federation Budget for 2023, which would provide an additional 40 million BAM for the needs of the work of the Solidarity Fund.
The participants of the round table also agreed that the Committee on Health of the House of Representatives of the FBIH Parliament, in its conclusion, should also ask the Government of FBIH to comply with the obligation to finance the work of the FBIH Solidarity Fund.
This situation is caused by numerous factors and it is a whole chain of things and activities that have become a pattern of behavior in previous years. – said Amra Junuzović-Kaljić, representative of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament and representative of the Health Committee.
Also, the participants of the round table called on the Ministry of Finance of the FBIH to show more responsibility when it comes to planning financial resources for the work of the FBIH Solidarity Fund in the FBIH Budget, and that in planning the same, it should be guided by the needs of patients, i.e. not to limit the Institute of Health Insurance and Reinsurance with its instructions. FBIH and the Ministry of Health FBIH to express the needs for budget expenditures in accordance with the Law on Health Insurance FBIH.
In the end, civil society organizations once again insisted that the FBiH Government’s current practice of not complying with the FBiH Solidarity Fund financing obligations, calling into question the right to health care for the citizens of the Federation of BiH, must be urgently changed in order to protect the rights of the FBiH citizens.