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Back to the Future: Socialist Legacy and Recent Developments in the Croatian Healthcare System

The period of the independent Republic of Croatia (since the beginning of the 1990s) is characterized by breaking up with political and economic legacy of Yugoslav socialism, which has been implying radical changes on the levels of social structure and practices, public morality, and worldview. Some significant traits of these developments can be found in the sphere of healthcare, as well. We will try to present, analyse and criticise it on two examples: crawling commercialisation and privatisation of healthcare services, on one hand, and tendency to restrictive legislature and policies regarding abortion and medically assisted reproduction, including promotion of “conscientious objection” in gynaecology and reproductive medicine, on the other hand. Although, on the first sight, this state of affairs could seem paradoxical, if we look at the underlying ideology it should seem only logical. Namely, in Croatia we can observe an increasing influence of American type of neoconservatism (promoted by several civil movements, NGOs, and political parties), which joins neoliberal economic-political views and Christian fundamentalist views on sexuality, reproduction, and family. The only paradox could be found in the fact that neoconservative trends in economic-political matters are strongly opposed to traditional Croatian conservatism, which has been rooted in Christian Catholic social views of peasants and workers, and much closer to socialist attitudes and policies than to neoliberal-capitalist ones. However, cunning politics of neoconservative agents, manipulative politics of right-wing political parties and governments, and calculative and opportunistic politics of (nominally) social-democratic political parties and governments, as well as general apathy and passivity of citizens of any political orientation, together with erosion of public sphere, including public media – produces no opposition to such developments. Very often they are portrayed as a progress in adjusting Croatian healthcare system and services to some European and global scientific and social trends. However, we are interpreting them as a regression in terms of human and civil rights, especially those of women and/or citizens of lower financial and social status.

healthcare system, Croatia, socialism, neoconservativism, bioethics, abortion

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