In mid-May, opposition MPs submitted a bill on healthcare fees to parliament. A few days later came a signal from the ministry that it was preparing changes to so-called "supplementary office hours" – likely connected to the same issue. Fees come up at every other healthcare conference, and it's no secret that the ministry has…
The EU healthcare challenge Healthcare systems across Europe face a structural crisis. Ageing populations, staff shortages, and rigid competency boundaries are intensifying pressure on services across all member states. In Slovakia, there are around 20 people over the age of 70 for every nurse – a ratio expected to rise to 30 by 2030. Similar…
“Competition is a discovery procedure that enables us to adapt to new circumstances. It is through further competition, not through agreement, that we gradually increase our efficiency.” This statement by economist F.A. Hayek best captures the essence of competition. Competition constantly separates the efficient from the inefficient. The invisible hand of the market is, in…
The illusory truth effect is a psychological phenomenon describing the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure. One example I can think of in Slovakia is the statement about “cherry-picking” in the hospital sector. Lower-tier hospitals—here it is often implied that private hospitals in particular—cherry-pick the easy and profitable patients and…
I often hear the phrases ‘real price’ or ‘justified price’, for example, in the question of ambulances or hospitals. They make my economic hair stand on end. It reminds me of how deeply embedded healthcare is in the price thinking of planned economics. Before 1989 in Slovakia, the whole economy was run on the principle…
