The merger of two state-run health insurance companies, Všeobecná Zdravotná Poisťovna and Spoločná Zdravotná Poisťovna, will be governed by a law, as the Slovak cabinet decided midweek to give the go-ahead to a draft revision to the law on health insurance companies as proposed by the Health Ministry, the SITA newswire reported. The revision is to become effective on December 21 of this year.
The ministry argued that decision-making by the Antitrust Office of the Slovak Republic motivated this move because the office has been examining the planned mergers since the summer of this year and it did not state when it would arrive at its conclusion.
The Health Ministry is convinced that the merger scheduled for January 1, 2010 is “seriously threatened”. A delay of the merger would lead to lower volume of funds saved on expenditures in 2010, a potential drop in the number of insured persons and complications in administrative tasks, said the Health Ministry.
Based on the recommendations of the ministry to resolve the merger through a law, the cabinet's draft will go to fast-track proceedings. According to the draft amendment, the health insurers should merge as of January 1, 2010 with Všeobecná Zdravotná Poisťovna being the legal successor. The Slovak state will continue to be the sole stockholder of the health insurer. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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