Health
Croatia has a universal health care system, the roots of which can be traced back to the Hungarian-Croatian Parliament Act of 1891, providing a form of mandatory insurance for all factory workers and craftsmen. The population is covered by a basic health insurance plan provided by statute and optional insurance. In 2009, the annual healthcare related expenditures reached 20.6 billion kuna (2.75 billion euro). Healthcare expenditures comprise only 0.6% of private health insurance and public spending. In 2010, Croatia spent 6.9% of its GDP on healthcare, representing a decline from approximately 8% estimated in 2008, when 84% of healthcare spending came from public sources. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Croatia ranks around the 50th in the world in terms of life expectancy.
There are hundreds of healthcare institutions in Croatia, including 79 hospitals and clinics with 23,967 beds. The hospitals and clinics care for more than 700 thousand patients per year and employ 5,205 medical doctors, including 3,929 specialists. There are 6,379 private practice offices, and a total of 41,271 health workers in the country. There are 63 emergency medical service units, responding to more than a million calls. The principal cause of death in 2008 was cardiovascular disease at 43.5% for men and 57.2% for women, followed by tumours, at 29.4% for men and 21.4% for women. Other significant causes of death are injuries, poisonings and other external causes (7.7% men/3.9% women), digestive system diseases (5.7% men/3.6% women), respiratory system diseases (5.1% men/3.5% women) and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (2.1% men/3.0% women). There is no other cause of disease affecting more than 3% of the population. In 2009 only 13 Croatians had been infected with HIV/AIDS and 6 had died from the disease. In 2008 it was estimated by the WHO that 27.4% of Croatians over age of 15 were smokers. According to 2003 WHO data, 22% of the Croatian adult population is obese.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Croatia
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“Nothing in Nature’s sober found,
But an eternal health goes round.
Fill up the bowl, then, fill it high,
Fill all the glasses there—for why
Should every creature drink but I?
Why, man of morals, tell me why?”
—Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)
“Youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears
Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
Importing health and graveness.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)