Three-year-old Amar Dukic from Velika Kladusa underwent eye surgery last year after it was discovered that he had cancer.
He was operated on in Germany, and the money for the operation was collected through donations, although the family had the right to have the costs of the treatment covered by the Solidarity Fund of the entity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH).
The fund was established with the aim of paying citizens for treatment abroad when this is not possible in domestic health institutions. In addition, it should also pay for expensive medicines for those suffering from the most serious diseases.
“We collected money and went to Germany,” says Amar’s mother Sejla.
She explains that the money was collected through a humanitarian action during the 17 days it took the University Clinical Center in Tuzla, which confirmed the diagnosis, to confirm in writing that Amar can only receive treatment abroad.
The certificate was necessary for the FBiH Institute of Health Insurance and Reinsurance in Sarajevo, in order to issue a decision on sending Amar for treatment abroad at the expense of the Solidarity Fund.
Although the Institute adopted the necessary solution, the Solidarity Fund did not pay a single BAM for Amar’s treatment, she adds.
Treatment paid
For Amar’s operation in Germany, Sejla points out, 25.000 euros were collected through donations. She says that a large number of BiH citizens from the country and abroad responded to calls for help to Amar.
“This is how our people saved Amar’s life. And someone who should have done it and whose job it is, didn’t,” says Sejla Dukic.
The Institute replies that this year’s financial plan amounts to 244 million BAM (about 122 million euros), and that “they will try to provide the insured with services and medicines under the jurisdiction of the Solidarity Fund”.
According to the claims of 14 non-governmental organizations from BiH, the Solidarity Fund has had a problem with a lack of money from the beginning.
They state that the Government of the FBiH violates the Law on Health Insurance, and pays the Fund less than 20 percent of the statutory budget grant, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
