Hello.
I would like to highlight a group of citizens of the Republic of Slovenia that has been overlooked in all the anti-corruption financial assistance measures. We are patients with long-standing medical conditions who have been on continuous sick leave for at least half a year.
The ban on non-emergency surgery is increasing our waiting times for surgery, which in turn is creating new medical situations that result in new visits to the doctor and visits to specialists. The situation results in prolonged medication, which has side effects, and visits to the doctor are again an inevitable consequence. Every visit to a health facility, pharmacy, hospital and specialist entails travel costs that are not reimbursed. The law is outdated, cumbersome and only allows reimbursement if there have been at least 5 visits between the 1st and the 31st of the month, and even then only for the shortest distance.... and even then only a certain meagre percentage of the amount is reimbursed.
The disease does not choose the dates, and you do not get to see a specialist within a month. The sickness benefit is 80%. In minimum wage cases, the allowance is so low that it does not allow normal survival through the month, let alone most of the expenses related to visiting health facilities and relieving pain. I therefore think that it would be more than reasonable for financial measures to take account of this group of citizens, who cannot live without health care, who, because of the epidemic, suffer the consequences of not having their turn for surgery and whose agony with the disease is only prolonged, while the cost of living skyrockets.
If financial assistance can be given to healthy citizens, families, social cases, people with disabilities, the private sector, etc., then the group of employees with longer sickness is also more than entitled to assistance, because it is not the fault of the epidemic itself, but it is the group that is most affected by the epidemic. I therefore ask that solutions be found to help this group financially as well.