Who is bothered by 'demographic opportunism': FBiH Government abolishes 8 million KM intended for infertility treatment

All married couples in the Federation of BiH who started the process of medically assisted reproduction treatment after June 16, 2023, will not be entitled to reimbursement of costs from the Budget, writes Istraga.ba.

Because the Government of the Federation of BiH, led by Nermin Nikšić, made a decision on December 27 to simply abolish eight million marks intended for infertility treatment.

Decision of the FBiH Government

"Given that the Health Insurance and Reinsurance Fund of the Federation of BiH did not spend the funds in the amount of 8 million KM in the current year, it submitted a request for the redistribution of funds from the aforementioned transfer to the transfer for the implementation of the solidarity fund program.

The Federal Ministry of Health addressed the Federal Ministry of Finance with a request for the redistribution of funds, which was approved, after the Fund returned the unspent funds," it is stated in the explanation of the FBiH Government's Decision dated December 27, 2023.

Explanation - funds were not spent

Therefore, the Government concludes that eight out of ten planned million marks intended for infertility treatment were not spent during 2023, and thus decides to transfer that money for other purposes. But why was it not spent?

In short, to ensure that the funds were not spent, the Federal Minister of Health, Nediljko Rimac, took action seven days earlier. Namely, on December 20, he amended the Rulebook, according to which only those couples who started the process before June 16, 2023, can get reimbursed for infertility treatment.

Therefore, all those who, in the second half of the year, from June 16 to December 31, tried to have a baby through medically assisted reproduction, were left without the right to apply for reimbursement. Which, logically, opens up room for the formulation - "planned funds were not spent".

Here is the key provision from the amendments to the Rulebook of December 20, 2023:

"In Article 11a, after paragraph (1), a new paragraph (2) is added, which reads: '(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of this article, applicants who were treated with medically assisted reproduction without the consent of the Commission for MAR of the Federal Fund from Article 3 of this Rulebook, are entitled to reimbursement of treatment costs from the budget of the Federation at prices, in accordance with the Price List of Health Services financed by the Federal Solidarity Fund and the Tariff of Health Services, the right to reimbursement of costs for ovulation stimulation drugs registered up to the maximum wholesale price of the drug determined by the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Bosnia and Herzegovina, increased by the retail margin and VAT, and the right to reimbursement of costs for unregistered ovulation stimulation drugs up to the amount found on the original pharmacy receipt for the purchase/procurement of the drug, provided that the medically assisted reproduction treatment was carried out from 01.01.2023 to 16.06.2023 and that it was determined by the Commission for MAR of the Federal Fund that it concerns medically assisted reproduction treatment and ovulation stimulation drugs for the treatment in question, which are financed from the budget of the Federation'.
Amendments to the Rulebook: instead of 31.12, the deadline was "pushed back" to 16.6.

To make matters even more absurd, the Federal Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić appointed a Working Group for the Development of the Policy of Demographic Development and Recovery of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"The task of the Working Group is to develop the document 'Policy of Demographic Development and Recovery of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina' by December 31, 2023, at the latest, which will systematically and professionally offer concrete, both short-term and long-term measures to improve the current demographic picture in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a special focus on solving the problem of youth emigration, declining birth rate, and the increasingly present phenomenon of population aging, and to submit it to the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Policy," it is stated in Nikšić's Decision.

Furthermore, one of the biggest critics of the previous convocation of the FBiH Government was a high-ranking official of the ruling Our Party. Namely, Sabina Ćudić, then a representative of Our Party in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH, requested that intervention funds be planned in the Federation's budget for 2020 for the refund of all individual costs of medically assisted reproduction incurred in 2019.

- In this way, the Government would partially repay everyone who, by adopting the Law, was misled into believing they would be entitled to medically assisted reproduction at the expense of compulsory health insurance funds. In addition, the Government would thereby prevent the costs of court proceedings based on justified lawsuits that will inevitably follow - said Ćudić.

The amount Ćudić proposed for reimbursement is two million KM, by which, according to her proposal, the amount of gross salaries and salary compensation should be reduced.

Three years later, Sabina Ćudić's party is a ruling party in the Federation of BiH. Ministers from Our Party, along with ministers from SDP, NiP, HDZ, and HDZ 1990, voted to abolish the money intended for infertility treatment.

Let us recall that Croatian lobbyist Edward P. Joseph, in a report by the Institute for Foreign Policy of Johns Hopkins University and the Wilson Center from January 2022, listed "Bosniak demographic opportunism" as one of the key problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, alongside "Croatian and Serbian separatism".