According to a Polis agency opinion poll published on October 30, 45.7 percent of respondents believe that a bill forcing health insurers to plough their profits back into the health care system was adopted last week due to political horse-trading between the governing coalition parties.Conducted by telephone between October 27-29 on 1,061 respondents on behalf of the MESA 10 think tank, the survey focused on the controversial amendment to the Act on Health-insurance Companies proposed by Health Minister Ivan Valentovič (a Smer-SD nominee).
Of those polled, only 11.3 percent said that the dispute was over principles, while 25.5 percent were undecided. Meanwhile, 30.7 percent view the amendment as good, compared to 35.3 percent who share the opposite opinion. A further 34 percent were unable to take a stance.
Polis also canvassed people’s opinion on parliament failing to debate a public petition calling for plurality in health care before voting on the bill. Most respondents, 55.4 percent, disapproved of this, while 14.7 percent took a favourable view and 29.9 percent didn’t know. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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