Slovakia is facing a demographic crisis with an increasing brain drain component, according to an analysis by the Finance Policy Institute (IFP). Based on an examination of health insurance records, it concluded that the country has lost about 5 percent of its population since 2000. In Slovakia, it's compulsory for all citizens to be registered with a health insurance company. The report concluded that more than half of those who have left Slovakia since the year 2000 are below the age of 30. The most rapid decline occurred shortly after Slovakia joined the EU in 2004, when 200,000 people were removed from health insurance registries in two years alone.
The most worrying finding is that about 14 percent of university graduates left the country each year between 2010-2013. It means that public investments in university education to the tune of €44.8 million per year are spent on people who don't use their acquired skills in their home country. The most significant brain drain affects graduates of medical and technical studies. Every fifth graduate of medical schools in Slovakia has left the country. The reasons vary from better pay and working conditions abroad to the impossibility to work on certain specializations in Slovakia. The Slovak Chamber of Doctors estimates that Slovakia already has a shortfall of about 3,000 doctors and if those who have already reached retirement age but are still practising are counted, then the deficit reaches 5,000. According to a survey ordered by the Association for the Protection of Patients' Rights, the shortage of specialists is already causing longer waiting periods, mainly in less economically developed regions of the country. About 37 percent of patients say they had to wait for an appointment with a specialist, sometimes even for more than a month.
