description
The article describes the development of health legislation within a considerably broad social context, i.e. in the fields of health insurance and health care services. The 1859 Crafts Act and the Sanitary Act passed in 1870 are considered to be the first two laws regulating these two fields in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They had been subject to upgrading and amending until the end of the First World War, when they were taken over and supplemented, to a certain extent, by the authorities of the State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (until 1918), Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918 - 1929) and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, existing until 1941. Throughout the above mentioned period, the legal system in force on the territory of the present Slovenia made it possible to adopt solutions and specific regulations governing the field of social health, and to implement some organisational models important for the sanitary and public health practice. After 1929, thelatter field was dealt with in detail by the the so-called "new" health legislation, and numerous acts and regulations were issued, governing the following areas: central health care services, hospitals, health care communities, improvement of sanitary conditions, health protection of pupils and teachers, control of infectious diseases, pharmacies and drugs, and healthpersonnel. Health legislation valid for the territory of Slovenia until the Second World War reflected political, cultural and organisational conditions, as well as the situation in science during that period. In addition, it represented a solid basis for understanding the development of medical care system and public health in Slovenia.