Health care provided to refugees from Ukraine

In the past few days, an analytical paper of the Institute for Healthcare Analyses was published. The main conclusions based on an analysis of data from the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava Self-Governing Region and General Health Insurance Company are:

• The total number of refugees from Ukraine in Slovakia is a maximum of 200,000, the number of granted temporary refuge is currently around 116,000.
• The are not included in our health insurance system, as is the case in neighboring countries. Depending on the granted status, they have different access to health care.
• The costs of urgent and necessary medical care for refugees from Ukraine at the beginning of 2023 amounted to approximately 840,000 euros per month (10.1 million euros per year), with the largest part (61.2%) being spent on hospitalizations.
• According to the general practitioners and pediatricians of the Bratislava self-governing region, not the entire volume of care provided to refugees is reported and paid for by health insurance companies.
• Health centers with staff from Ukraine have been established in Bratislava and Košice, which, even in view of the existing language barrier, seems to be a well-functioning solution for a certain part of refugees.

Interesting findings from the article were reviewed by Peter Pažitný, who provided the authors with several interesting observations. The entire contribution paper is available on the website of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic (only in Slovak language).