Health, as a person’s greatest value, should be accessible to each of us. Nowadays, access to health services is a growing problem as many countries face waiting times in health care. Patients often wait for medical care beyond the legally permissible waiting time. The purpose of the master’s thesis entitled "Analysis of Waiting Times in the Slovenian Healthcare System with International Comparison" is to analyze the situation in the field of waiting times in Slovenia, present different health systems, and identify ways to successfully shorten waiting times. By analyzing the data on waiting times from 2018, 2019 and 2021, we found that they are being extended every year. We also looked for the causes of waiting times and found that they are mainly due to excessive demand and insufficient supply. At the same time, the aging of the population plays an important role, as its life expectancy has increased significantly due to advanced information technology and, consequently, developments in medicine. The share of the population aged 65 and over in Slovenia increased by 4 percentage points between 2011 and 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has further extended the waiting times, with the number of people waiting for specific health services rising by 90%. That is why waiting times in health care are an important political issue in Slovenia. In the past, through the One-Time Additional Program for Reducing Waiting Times, we successfully shortened waiting times for certain types of health services; however, additional funding is not always an appropriate measure to shorten waiting times and it is necessary to determine the causes of such waiting times.
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