The Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, a member of the governing coalition, will not support Prime Minister Iveta Radičová’s plan to scrap health-care levies, SaS leader and Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulík told reporters before a Coalition Council meeting on Tuesday, January 11.
According to some media reports, scrapping the health-care levies (currently deducted from salaries and transferred to health insurers) is being considered by the coalition as an alternative measure in the framework of a planned revamp of levies and deductions. “Our Programme Manifesto says nothing about scrapping health-care levies and increasing taxes ... so we only want to go with the measures we’ve agreed on,” Sulík said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
However, Radičová sees things in a different light. She argues that the plan is to transfer the levies and have the state pay them in a different form to health insurers (via higher general taxes). This cannot be viewed as ‘scrapping’ the health-care levies, Radičová said.
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.
