Why There is No Health Insurance in the Republic of Kosovo?

Abstract

Although the legal basis for an adjustment and legal definition can be found in the Constitution of Kosovo, namely in Section 51.2, since 1990, Kosovo could not guarantee a provision of Healthcare Insurance (HI) for its citizen. While it is the recent statistics that have been showing a high degree of unemployment and poverty, the importance of functionalizing of a Health Insurance Fund (HIF) has been considered as a very important issue, particularly in regard to a most vulnerable layer of the local population Along the previous 10 years, since the first Law on Healthcare Insurance has been initially drafted in 2004, attempts were made by the Ministry of Health (MH) to establish different working groups for the purpose of defining the legislation, which should lead to its adoption and creating the legal basis for the establishment of the Health Insurance Fund. Despite the efforts, to date, these attempts have proved unsuccessful due to the lack of the serious approach to the issue by the changing government. Furthermore, in consultation with International Monetary Fund, a study worth mentioning is also the one which has been developed by the World Bank in 2008 (for the purpose of studying fusibility regarding the macroeconomic involvement), which also brought important recommendations for the Government of Kosovo. In the section where the results are presented, different views from the Government of Kosovo, Ministry of Health and World Bank are portrayed in the manner of creation, financing and fund management. Further discussions should aim to define the causes and key problems behind the question: “Why there is no Health Insurance in Kosovo?”.