The agreement was made possible after the final stumbling block was removed with a consensus reached on health contributions for sole proprietors at Tuesday's meeting hosted by PM Alenka Bratušek.

The bill is to be adopted by the government on Thursday in what Health Minister Tomaž Gantar said was but the first step to sorting out financial problems in healthcare, to be followed by a systemic law.

Under the compromise, monthly health contribution for sole proprietors would not be raised beyond EUR 125, while the original proposal, which the Citizen's List opposed, was to raise it from EUR 105 to EUR 133.

According to the minister, the compromise is to bring an extra EUR 10m a year, while the financial impact of the whole bill is estimated at just below EUR 50m a year.

The bill would introduce new and increase some of the existing healthcare contributions. But not for those in regular employment, who currently contribute three-quarters of the health purse's annual revenue.

Rihard Braniselj of the DL said the compromise would enable sole proprietors, who he said were entitled to paying the lowest contribution, to remain within "reasonable boundaries".

The DL demands that the ministry immediately start working on a reform of the healthcare system, which Gantar agreed with, but said that main problems in the system concerned management and organisation.

Another major obstacle to more effective work in healthcare is what Gantar described as the unstimulative pay system, which he said was in the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of public administration.

The leader of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), Karl Erjavec, hailed the compromise as a way of preserving public healthcare.