Speaking to journalists about the comments of his ministry toward the drafts, Finance Minister Ján Počiatek said he would like to see a more detailed financial and legal analysis of the draft amendment to health insurance law and the draft amendment to the law on public health insurance.
Earlier on March 28, the Health Policy Institute civic association pointed to the fact that Počiatek's ministry has serious objections toward the Health Ministry's draft revisions on health insurance that are currently undergoing interdepartmental review.
The Finance Ministry warned that if the laws were passed in their proposed wording, foreign health insurance companies would very probably file a motion in international courts complaining about Slovakia's violation of bilateral agreements on the support and mutual protection of investments. The Finance Ministry continued that if certain groups of citizens, for whom the state pays health insurance premiums, were forced to be insured through public health insurance companies, the number of policyholders in private health insurance would shrink. This would mean that investments of foreign firms in Slovakia’s health insurance market would depreciate to a significant extent. As the Finance Ministry further emphasized, international treaties take precedence over Slovak laws.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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