The healthcare system in Slovenia is one of the key pillars of the welfare state, where public interests intertwine with private initiative. With the aim of clearly separating public and private healthcare activities, the legislature adopted an amendment to the Healthcare Activities Act (ZZDej-N) in 2025, which introduced restrictions that alter the operating conditions for concessionaires within the public network. At the heart of the constitutional review, which culminated in the partial and final decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia under case number U-I-79/25, is the question of where the line lies between legitimate regulation of public services and disproportionate interference with free economic initiative (Article 74 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia).
In this master’s thesis, I analyze certain restrictions whose constitutionality was assessed by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia in its decisions U-I-79/25, namely the constitutionality of restrictions on status transformation and ties to the actual owner, the prohibition on disposing of surplus revenue over expenses from concession activities, and restrictions on the contractual forms of cooperation among healthcare workers. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia upheld the legislative concept according to which a concession remains a strictly personal right and an inseparable part of the regulated public health service. The decision as a whole thus confirms the primacy of the public interest over the economic freedoms of concessionaires within the public health network.
|
