At today’s AmCham Business Breakfast, “Healthcare is Essential for All; It’s Time for Respectful Dialogue and Clear Solutions,” we discussed the state of Slovenian healthcare with Prof. Bojana Beović, MD, Janko Burgar, MSc, Assoc. Prof. Petra Došenović Bonča, PhD, Prof. Stjepan Orešković, PhD, and Assoc. Prof. Marko Pokorn, MD. The discussion focused on the challenges of the system, which call for urgent strategic solutions: accessibility to health services, improving the quality of the system without financial inputs, the demographic trends and their impact on the healthcare system, and the necessary adoption of innovative strategies from the global environment to the Slovenian space. The speakers stressed the importance of respectful dialogue in reaching a consensus on how to devise an organized and well-functioning health system, emphasized that healthcare is a service and, thus, an important stakeholder in improving the well-being of society. The majority of participants at today’s Business Breakfast identified experienced management as the measure that would most contribute to improving the accessibility and efficiency of the Slovenian healthcare system, with a public-private partnership coming second.

Petra Juvančič, Executive Director, Managers’ Association of Slovenia, who moderated the event, began by stating: “We no longer have challenges; now we have problems.” The major challenges or problems are the increased needs in healthcare due to democratic trends, the development of innovative technologies, medicines, and treatment methods, and the related increase in costs (medical inflation), as well as the fully justified expectations of developed societies for healthy and quality years of life even in old age (impact on the all-encompassing medical services basket). The speakers were unanimous about the collective lack of awareness that healthcare is a socio-economic category and an important stakeholder in the creation of social product and the well-being of society. Therefore, addressing the challenges of Slovenian healthcare requires long-term and strategic measures as well as the cooperation of various stakeholders and, above all, moving away from populism towards professional, responsible, transparent, and clear communication, involving credible interlocutors.