Parliamentarians and entrepreneurs ask to revise the bill on the introduction of mandatory health insurance

The Ministry of Health and Social Development proposes to establish a social health insurance fund, which will accumulate payments from all payers.

This was reported at the public hearings of the project of the Concept of the Law "On mandatory medical insurance" held at NCE RK "Atameken" by the chairman of the Committee of payment of medical services of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the RK Almas Kurmanov.

According to the concept, employers as of 2017 will be obliged to make mandatory contributions to social health insurance in the amount of 5% of the payroll. And since 2020, and workers will have to pay 2% of salary.

According to the Health Ministry, the establishment of such a fund would allow citizens to provide services within the guaranteed volume of free medical care. The experience of Germany was taken as a basis, where the premiums collected by the 130th country insurance funds are accumulated in the single fund for risk equalization and are supplemented by subsidies from the federal budget.

The discussion, which was held with the participation of deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament, representatives of government agencies, industry associations, entrepreneurs and financial sector, resulted in a heated discussion.

As noted the Executive Director of the Association of mining and metallurgical industry Nikolay Radostovets, the Ministry of Health simply "shifts the responsibility on the shoulders of employers". The head of an industry association called steelmakers to consider the concept as untenable, because it is not consistent with market principles. "An employer should not deal with the treatment of an employee, he should be engaged in the production!" - he said, adding that the foundation of the new model should be based on the principle of individual health insurance, and in case of lack - 11 percent of social security tax can be used for these purposes.

Mazhilis deputy Aigul Solovyova expressed solidarity with him. Without denying the need for health insurance, she stated that the mechanism of its implementation requires serious work.

"Medical insurance is definitely needed. This system works all over the world. But we need proper calculations that show how money should be spent. In my opinion, the ministry is not understanding how it is done in OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Many overseas investors are accustomed to the civilized system of insurance, applied in all OECD countries, where the emphasis is more on the individual insurance", - explained the deputy.

"Dark scheme fund: how many employees there will be? what salary will they receive? Perhaps these 5% will go to the maintenance of the fund, then we will ask them as always, what do they do? In addition, we need calculation of how CIT will fall (corporate income tax), because many employers will hide wages, they will reduce staff’s wages", - said Aigul Solovyova.

MP Azat Peruashev also opposed the introduction of compulsory contributions for employers, saying that it puts under risk the domestic economy. According to him, this is actually a hidden tax.

"The fact that there is already a social tax on payroll in the amount of 11%. We also propose to add another 5% to be exempted from an employer and 1% from the employee. This is a very strange approach. However, we refer to the developed countries of the OECD. There is no mechanism like this in developed countries! There each worker insures himself, and an employer can help him. And, first, it is an interest of a person, secondly, insurance companies monitor if a person leads healthy lifestyle, does he exercise, does he smoke or abuse alcohol. This is a large set of activities that can’t be solved at once. What we are offered now? The Ministry of Health found the simplest way: to collect the money, and to create a fund under the Ministry, which accumulates money”, - commented Azat Peruashev.

As it was noted by the chairman of the Committee of pharmaceutical, medical and health care industry of the Presidium of NCE RK "Atameken" Arnur Nurtayev the system offered by the Ministry of Health does not take into account the specifics of health insurance.

"There should carried out a scrupulous calculation and submitted to entrepreneurs. The absence of such calculations leads to misunderstanding of the both parties. Unfortunately, the new health insurance system does not provide for existence of insurance companies, which currently work in this area and provide such services", - said Arnur Nurtayev.

As noted the Deputy Chairman of NCE RK "Atameken" Yuliya Yakupbaeva, we a large number of participants in the health sector, including private medical clinics and insurance companies, etc.

"So the system that we currently develop should not only carry an additional burden, but also incentives for business development, employee development, and not to bear only those factors that cause rejection. This system should be based on actuarial calculations, on those mistakes, shortcomings, which we currently have in SGBP (state guaranteed benefit package)", - explained Deputy Chairman of NCE RK.

Following the meeting it was proposed to form a working group on alternative development of the Concept of health insurance, which will group all the proposals of the business community and develop a consolidated position.