State-run health insurer to be led by Miroslav Kočan

Miroslav Kočan will become the director of the state-run health insurer Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (VšZP), Health Minister Tomáš Drucker announced.

Minister DruckerMinister Drucker (Source: SITA)

“This is a man from the insurance sector who has worked for the insurance company Allianz at the Slovak as well as at the regional level for 12 years,” said Drucker, following the government session on May 4, s quoted by the TASR newswire.    

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Previously, Drucker announced that the state-owned health insurer would be headed by a manager without any connections to the health-care sector. The Minister is sure that no conflict of interests and no problems will appear with Kočan.  sa “I cannot imagine for whom he could be problematic form the point of view of his perception: he has never worked in public administration, only in the private sector,” Drucker added, according to the SITA newswire.

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In the past, Kočan was a board member of the Slovak Allianz – SP health insurer, while now, he works for German Allianz, the Denník N daily wrote.

According to the new rules, the head of VšZP should come before the Health-care Parliamentary Committee where MPs would get a chance to pose questions to him.

Since last year, VšZP has been led by Miroslav Vaďura who replaced Marcel Forai in the wake of a scandal regarding contracts concluded with Forai’s aunt Anna Sučková.

On the same day, Drucker also presented nominations for the VšZP board members. Alongside Kočan, Milan Horváth and Michal Ďuriš should also sit on the board. Horváth worked for the Slovak central bank, Slovenská sporiteľňa bank and at the Finance Ministry. Ďuriš also worked in the finance sector, and he also was a vice-dean at the Comenius University in Bratislava. Within two weeks, the supervisory board of VšZP will also see the replacement of the current members – and the new members will also include a representative of the opposition, the minister told SITA. 

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Last week, Drucker also announced a change in the post of Health Supervisory Office (ÚDZS) director. This body has been headed by Tomáš Haško since May 1. Former director Monika Pažinková resigned from her post at the end of March, with her tenure ending on April 30. 

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