The Government is dealing with an illusory problem concerning the number of health insurers, as the real problem is the people's unawareness of specific rights related to their insurance, Health Policy Institute (HPI) chief Peter Pažitný said after HPI submitted a petition against the establishment of a unitary system of health insurance to the government on Monday, October 8.
Pažitný stated that if the government wants to improve people's health status, it should focus on boosting the awareness of their rights. He believes that plurality in health insurance makes sense, although the main package of rights related to health insurance has not been set. "We can see that there are differences between insurers – they are competing," said Pažitný for the TASR newswire. More than 10,000 people signed the petition. According to Pažitný, if the government disregards this petition, it will not mean that it only ignores these 10,000 people, but 1.8 million people insured with private insurers, too. He added that the waiting lists for surgeries will certainly increase after the Government introduces the unitary system, and that competition is beneficial for health-care providers, as they would not be dependent on the arbitrary decisions of a monopoly.
The government wants to introduce the system featuring just a single (state-run) health insurer as of January 2014, following a buy-out or nationalisation of the two private insurers - Dôvera and Union.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
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