"The Health Insurance Fund Is Run by a Fitness Trainer": Filipche Claims Healthcare Is Falling Apart Under Mickoski
At a press conference, the SDSM leader charged that university clinics are led by doctors without academic credentials, medicines are delayed, and patients wait months for surgery
The country's healthcare system is in a state of collapse, and the events in Gostivar are not an isolated incident but a symptom of systemic decay. With this assessment, SDSM leader Venko Filipche opened a press conference at which he leveled a series of serious accusations about the state of healthcare under Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.
"The healthcare system in the country is obviously in collapse. What happened in Gostivar is not just an isolated case — these are systemic signs of inefficiency and dysfunction. The healthcare system is simply falling apart under the leadership of Hristijan Mickoski and his team," Filipche said.
According to him, clinics across the country are short of medicines, delaying patients' therapies, while surgical interventions carry waiting lists of months — the result of staff shortages and non-functioning operating rooms. The opposition leader noted that dozens of university clinics, institutions meant to train future specialists, are today led by doctors who lack the required teaching and scientific credentials.
"Basic education — a trainer"
Filipche directed the sharpest part of his criticism at the government's personnel policy, singling out the appointment of the director of the Health Insurance Fund.
"The Health Insurance Fund is run by a person whose basic education is that of a trainer. And the issue here is not the formal diploma, but the capacity to manage one of the most complex and sensitive systems in the state," he said, recalling that this is a system with a multi-billion denar budget requiring expertise in public health and health economics.
"Photo-ops for PR effect, while salaries haven't moved"
Filipche accused the government of focusing on photographs and promotions instead of investing in the quality of healthcare services.
"Instead of this government investing in things that would improve the quality of the healthcare service, all they do is take pictures to achieve some kind of PR effect. Meanwhile, salaries in healthcare haven't moved," the SDSM leader said, stressing that during his party's mandate doctors' base salaries were increased by 40 percent, while specialists' total incomes grew by up to 200 percent.
The ruling party has not yet responded to the accusations made at the press conference.
