Croatia’s Finance Minister Zdravko Marić, at an Economic and Financial affairs meeting council (ECOFIN) at the European Council in Brussels, February 12, 2019. Photo by Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock.com

“It’s still not HRK 10 bln but the debts are rising. Given the coronavirus, it’s normal that we had additional needs to finance healthcare,” Marić told reporters on June 17.

“The system turned out to be very good in terms of the functioning of doctors, nurses and other staff, but at the same time the financial circumstances are such that it is necessary to make certain changes, reforms so that the system becomes financially tenable,” he added.