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:
“Some fear that if parents start listening to their own wants and needs they will neglect their children. It is our belief that children are in fact far less likely to be neglected when their parents’ needs—for support, for friendship, for decent work, for health care, for learning, for play, for time alone—are being met.”
—Wendy Coppedge Sanford. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, introduction (1978)
“The community and family networks which helped sustain earlier generations have become scarcer for growing numbers of young parents. Those who lack links to these traditional sources of support are hard-pressed to find other resources, given the emphasis in our society on providing treatment services, rather than preventive services and support for health maintenance and well-being.”
—Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)
“Taste is the fundamental quality which sums up all the other qualities. It is the nec plus ultra of the intelligence. Through this alone is genius the supreme health and balance of all the faculties.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)