Croatia expands medical staffing and drug coverage amid family medicine funding concerns

The Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) has approved the funding of 281 medical doctors without specialization to work under supervision, aiming to bolster the national healthcare workforce. Additionally, the HZZO has implemented several changes to drug accessibility, including adding tirzepatid to the supplementary drug list with a co-payment of 25 to 45 euros, and placing dapagliflozin on the basic list to allow for full coverage for type 2 diabetes patients. The fund also introduced a new radionuclide treatment model for metastatic prostate cancer, currently restricted to KBC Zagreb.

In contrast to these funding expansions, the Coordination of Croatian Family Medicine (KoHOM) has warned of a critical financing gap regarding family medicine specializations. KoHOM reports that many health centers struggle to fund the training of specialists because they must also cover the costs of replacement doctors. This financial strain threatens a national plan to introduce 600 new family medicine specializations. Currently, there is a shortage of approximately 300 doctors within the public health network, leading to many patients lacking permanent family physicians.