Ivana Kekin criticizes new mandatory health exams for youth athletes

Ivana Kekin, a member of Parliament from the Možemo! party and chair of the Health and Social Policy Committee, has criticized a new Ministry of Health regulation regarding mandatory health examinations for children in club sports.

The regulation requires nearly all children participating in organized sports—excluding chess, billiards, golf, and bowling—to undergo annual medical exams. These exams include EKGs, spirometry, blood tests, liver and kidney function tests, and glucose and urine checks. Kekin argues that the scope of these tests is excessive because it is applied uniformly regardless of the child's age, the type of sport, training intensity, or individual health risks.

Kekin highlighted that the public healthcare system lacks the capacity to perform these extensive tests for the large number of children involved. Consequently, parents may be forced to pay for private clinics, with costs estimated between 70 and 90 euros per child. She warned that this creates a financial burden that could force lower-income families to withdraw their children from sports, potentially exacerbating existing issues with childhood obesity in Croatia.