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Population ageing currently represents a phenomenon that is occurring around the world. It can also be defined as a consequence of the fertility rate decline and the increasing life expectancy, resulting in an increasing number and a proportion of the population in the post-productive age. For the first time, the elderly population will be predominant over the younger people (World Health Organization, 2020). The ongoing demographic changes are going to characterise the upcoming decades. This process will affect the different areas from the population’s health status through the health systems, the conditions in the labour market, the changing consumption patterns, and the need to provide the system reforms related to higher demand for public resources and finance. Ageing creates deep pressure on fiscal sustainability. It will put unprecedented stress on public finance to fund the pension system, the health system and the long-term care expenditures (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2019).

The World Health Organisation (WHO, 1946) defines health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. Good health is not only of value to the individual as a major determinant of quality of life, well-being and social participation, but it also contributes to general social and economic growth. Good health is a key aspect of people’s well-being and enhances opportunities to participate in the labour market and to benefit from economic and employment growth. People with poor physical or mental health are less likely to work and more likely to be unemployed than people in better health. The relationship also works the other way around: people with higher level of education and higher income tend to be in better health and live longer than those with lower level of education and income (OECD, 2015).

Quality health care system is a priority for citizens of each country and a precondition for economic prosperity. The public health systems in many counties bear the huge burden of treatment of serious diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, respiratory, mental and other chronic diseases represent great suffering to citizens and represent a huge cost to society and the economy. It is estimated that they will cost the global economy around €22.5 trillion between 2012 and 2030 (EU, 2013).

Hospitals are the weakest segment of the Slovak health care system. Their basic problems are evident in outdated material-technical base, demotivation of physicians, lack of care for the chronically and severely ill patients, regulated and non-competing system of health insurance companies, dysfunctional system of trainings for physician and health professionals. Health care providers (HCP) assess the current health care system as completely unstable.