A situation familiar to almost everyone living in Slovakia: the family doctor issues a referral to a specialist, and then the marathon begins — you call dozens of clinics, everywhere you hear "we are not taking new patients" or "the nearest appointment is in four months." The insurance company, to which you pay contributions every month, will send a list of doctors with whom it has a contract upon request for help — and that's it, look for yourself.
This is how the system is arranged. The inaccessibility of medical care is the number one topic among complaints received by Verejný ochranca práv (ombudsman; human rights commissioner) Robert Dobrovodský. And now he wants to change this by shifting the search for a doctor from the patient to the insurance company.
What exactly the ombudsman proposes
On July 30, 2026, Dobrovodský submitted his proposals within the framework of interdepartmental coordination (medzirezortné pripomienkové konanie) for amendments to the Act on Medical Service Providers. The essence is to legally establish the right of an insured person to demand from their medical insurance company the appointment of a specific specialist doctor, not just to send a list.
As ozdravme.sk writes, the ombudsman also proposes creating a single body that will check cases when a doctor refuses to conclude a contract with a patient or terminates it, and will provide a replacement doctor. Currently, according to Dobrovodský, patients in such situations find themselves in a legal vacuum: neither the regional self-government nor the insurance company considers itself obliged to act.
The most interesting is the backup option. If the insurance company cannot find the required specialist in Slovakia, the patient will have the right to be treated in another EU country, for example Austria or the Czech Republic, at the expense of the same insurance. For residents of border regions, this could become a real solution, not just a paper right.
Who is against and why
The idea immediately met resistance — and from an unexpected side. The doctors themselves opposed it: the Association of Outpatient Providers (Zväz ambulantných poskytovateľov) and the Association of Private Doctors. Their argument is simple: no law will create new doctors. The problem is not that specialists do not want to accept patients, but that there are physically not enough of them and they are overloaded, Medicínsky denník notes.
Insurance companies, in turn, shift responsibility to doctors. The marketing director of the insurance company Union, Silvia Vlasková, says that the efforts of insurers are often nullified because a specialist doctor is not obliged to take a patient for treatment. The press secretary of the largest state insurance company VšZP, Danka Čapáková, adds: for the patient to feel real changes, it is not enough to prescribe the rights of the insured — the obligations of medical service providers, i.e., the doctors themselves, must also be prescribed.
A classic Slovak situation: everyone admits there is a problem, and everyone points to the neighbor.
What next and when will there be a decision
The Ministry of Health, headed by Minister Kamil Šášik, confirmed that the ombudsman's proposals are being considered within the standard legislative process, but the result is not yet determined. After interdepartmental coordination, the amendments must be approved by the government and then by the parliament, so even in a positive scenario, this issue will take months, not weeks.
What you can do now
Until the law changes, a referral to a specialist is still your personal quest. Here are some practical steps that really work:
Ask the insurance company not for a list, but for help with booking. Formally, they cannot be obliged, but VšZP, Dôvera, and Union have hotlines where operators sometimes really help find a free "window." A written request (email) records your inquiry — this will be useful for a complaint.
Complain to the ombudsman. Such appeals formed the statistics on which Dobrovodský relies. The more there are, the harder it is for the Ministry of Health to refuse the amendments.
Look beyond your city. Specialists in a neighboring district town often have shorter queues than in Bratislava or Košice, and the referral is valid throughout the country.
Remember about urgency. If the condition is acute, you can legally bypass the queue through urgentný príjem (emergency admission) with a referral from your family doctor.
More about the ombudsman's position and the reaction of medical associations — in the Postoj article. We will keep you informed as soon as the amendments pass the government filter.
