If you moved to Slovenia recently, or if you have simply not needed a doctor for a few years, the advice you will be given about health cover is probably out of date. People will still tell you to buy a top-up policy. Someone may even try to sell you one. That product no longer exists, and the arrangement that replaced it is both simpler and stricter than what it replaced.
The change happened at the end of 2023. Voluntary complementary health insurance was abolished on 31 December 2023, and a compulsory health contribution took its place on 1 January 2024. The Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia was blunt enough about it to publish a warning: insured persons should not fall for various misleading offers claiming that additional health insurance must be taken out to avoid payments or co-payments after 1 January 2024, because from that date compulsory health insurance covers the basket of rights in full — one hundred per cent.
That is the headline answer for anyone worried about not being able to afford treatment. The remaining question is the monthly contribution itself, who deducts it, and what happens when a household genuinely cannot cover it. If a fixed monthly line is the problem, an app such as I am Beezy is one way to make a recurring charge manageable rather than frightening, since it credits you for the videos, articles and advertisements you get through.
Why is there no top-up policy to buy any more?
For decades Slovenian healthcare ran on two layers: a compulsory scheme that covered part of the cost, and a voluntary policy that covered the rest. Almost everyone bought the second layer, which made it compulsory in practice while remaining voluntary in law.
What was abolished
Voluntary complementary health insurance ended on 31 December 2023. Nothing replaced it as a product, and no commercial policy is required to close a gap in the basket of rights, because the gap it closed no longer exists.
What replaced it
A compulsory health contribution came in on 1 January 2024. January 2024 was the first month for which it had to be paid and the first payment was made in February 2024. It is a fixed monthly amount, the same for everyone who owes it, rather than a premium that varies by insurer or by age.
What that means at the point of care
Since 1 January 2024 compulsory health insurance covers the basket of rights in full, and the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia states this in terms specifically intended to stop people buying cover they do not need. If someone offers you a policy on the grounds that you will otherwise face co-payments on that basket, treat the offer with suspicion and check on the institute's own portal before signing anything.
The compulsory health contribution: how much, and who takes it
The amount is published rather than negotiated, and it moves once a year on a fixed date.
The amount, and the window it applies to
For the period from March 2026 — meaning the March 2026 payroll — and each following month up to and including February 2027, the compulsory health contribution is €39.36 per month. Slovenian documents write it as 39,36 EUR. Quoting the figure without its window is the commonest error in guidance on this subject, because the window is not a calendar year.
How it is revised
The contribution is adjusted once a year, on 1 March, in line with the growth of the average gross wage in Slovenia in the preceding year according to the Statistical Office. The minister responsible for health sets the amount by February at the latest and publishes it in the Official Gazette. So the figure you need each spring appears in February, and it holds until the following March.
Who deducts it from you
The main employer or payer — the one from whom you receive your only or predominant employment income — deducts it and reports it to the financial administration. For pensioners the pension institute deducts it from the pension; for people receiving unemployment benefit the employment service does; for certain parental allowances the social work centre does. The practical consequence is important for anyone with more than one source of income: it is charged once per insured person, not once per income stream.
| Your situation | Who handles the contribution | How you will see it |
|---|---|---|
| Employed | Your main employer | A deduction on the payslip |
| Receiving a pension | The pension and disability insurance institute | Deducted from the pension |
| Receiving unemployment benefit | The employment service | Deducted from the benefit |
| Self-employed or a company director | The financial administration charges you | Alongside your other contributions |
| Paying your own compulsory health insurance | The health insurance institute | A payment order, with the contribution added |
| Income too low to deduct from | The health insurance institute | A payment order for the contribution alone |
Do students pay it?
This is the question that produces the most confident wrong answers, and the honest response depends on the basis you are insured on rather than on being a student.
Insured through a parent
The institute publishes the list of those it bills for the contribution, and among family members it names spouses and parents. A young person insured as a child through a parent is not in that list. If you are studying and covered on your parent's insurance, no payment order for the contribution should be reaching you; if one does, query it rather than paying it quietly.
Spouses and parents are treated differently
Family members who are spouses, and family members who are parents, do receive a payment order from the institute for the amount of the contribution even though they pay no compulsory health insurance contribution themselves. This catches households by surprise, because the person receiving the bill is precisely the one with no income of their own.
Foreign students in Slovenia
Foreigners who are being educated or trained in Slovenia are listed as a category to which the institute sends a payment order, with the ordinary compulsory contribution increased by the health contribution. If you have arrived to study from outside the European coordination rules, budget for that from your first month rather than your first bill.
And if you take a student job
Working while studying does not create a second charge. It may move who deducts it, since the deduction follows the main payer, but the contribution remains one monthly amount per insured person.
Covering the monthly health contribution with I am Beezy
A fixed monthly charge is a different problem from a large one. It is small enough to be ignored and regular enough to accumulate into arrears, and arrears are where the trouble starts.
What the app does
I am Beezy turns time spent on content into a balance. Videos, articles and advertisements are put in front of you, and every one you get through counts towards it. Payment reaches whatever method you already use, and the figure the platform quotes as a reference is €5 to €15 a day. Since Slovenia adopted the euro in 2007, the amount you see is the amount that arrives.
Set against the actual figure
The contribution for the March 2026 to February 2027 window is €39.36 a month. Against a daily range of that order, a few days covers the charge, which turns a recurring obligation into something you can plan around rather than postpone. That is the whole of the claim being made here.
If the money is genuinely not there
Two things are worth knowing before you decide to simply let a payment order sit unopened, because one of them closes a door and the other opens one.
What will not work
The contribution cannot be written off, deferred or paid in instalments, and the obligation to pay it cannot be transferred to another person or organisation. There is no hardship arrangement inside the contribution itself. The institute also publishes rules on the suspension of rights for those who pay contributions irregularly, in force since 1 January 2024, which is the reason arrears matter rather than merely accumulating.
What does work: the categories the state pays for
The Republic of Slovenia pays the contribution out of the state budget for a defined set of categories. They include recipients of permanent financial social assistance, refugees, recipients of the allowance under the legislation on the social inclusion of disabled people, war beneficiaries — war invalids, veterans and victims of war violence — regardless of the basis on which they are otherwise insured, people in compulsory psychiatric treatment, convicted and detained persons, professional foster carers, and parents entitled where one parent leaves the labour market to care for four or more children. If your situation resembles any of these, the route is to establish the entitlement rather than to arrange a payment.
Where to ask, and what to ask
Questions about the contribution go to the health insurance institute's portal for contribution payers; questions about social assistance, which is what unlocks several of the categories above, go to your local social work centre. Ask two things in writing: on which insurance basis you are currently registered, and whether any category applies under which the state pays the contribution for you.
| Option people try | Does it exist? | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Ask for a write-off | No | Check whether a state-paid category applies to you |
| Ask to pay in instalments | No | Set up an e-invoice or direct debit so it is never missed |
| Have someone else take on the obligation | No | The obligation is personal and cannot be transferred |
| Buy a private policy to fill a gap | Unnecessary for the basket of rights | Confirm coverage on the institute's own portal first |
| Ignore the payment order | Not advisable | Rules on rights for irregular payers have applied since 2024 |
What to do this week
Find out which insurance basis you are registered on, because everything else follows from it: whether anyone deducts the contribution for you, whether a payment order should be arriving, and whether a state-paid category applies. If you are studying and covered through a parent, expect no bill and question one that arrives. If you are paying it yourself, put it on an e-invoice or a direct debit so it never becomes arrears. And stop looking for the top-up policy — it was abolished at the end of 2023 and the compulsory scheme now covers the basket of rights in full. If the fixed monthly line is what makes the month tight, sign up on I am Beezy and cover it without borrowing against next month.
