Croatia has a universal health care system, whose roots can be traced back to the Hungarian-Croatian Parliament Act of 1891, providing a form of mandatory insurance of all factory workers and craftsmen.[1] The population is covered by a basic health insurance plan provided by statute and optional insurance. In 2009, annual healthcare related expenditures reached 20.6 billion kuna (2.75 billion euro).[2] Healthcare expenditures comprise only 0.6% of private health insurance and public spending.[3] In 2010, Croatia spent 6.9% of its GDP on healthcare,[4] representing a decline from approximately 8% estimated in 2008, when 84% of healthcare spending came from public sources.[5] Croatia ranked around the 50th in the world in life expectancy with 73 years for men and 79 years for women, and it had a low infant mortality rate of 6 per 1,000 live births.[6]
There are hundreds of healthcare institutions in Croatia, including 79 hospitals and clinics with 23,967 beds. The hospitals and clinics care for more than 700 thousand patients per year and employ 5,205 medical doctors, including 3,929 specialists. There are 6,379 private practice offices, and a total of 41,271 health workers in the country. There are 63 emergency medical service units, responding to more than a million calls. The principal cause of death in 2008 was cardiovascular disease at 43.5% for men and 57.2% for women, followed by tumours, at 29.4% for men and 21.4% for women. In 2009 only 13 Croatians had been infected with HIV/AIDS and 6 had died from the disease.[2] In 2008 it was estimated by the WHO that 27.4% of Croatians over age of 15 are smokers.[7] According to 2003 WHO data, 22% of the Croatian adult population is obese.[8]
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