Health Minister to propose €51 annual payment for uninsured patients

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Health Minister Ilze Viņķele (For Development/For) will propose a €51 annual mandatory payment for uninsured patients, which would effectively mean introducing a single-basket healthcare system in Latvia, the minister told LETA.

Although it has been decided that the reforms necessary in the health insurance system will be made simultaneously with a revision of tax reforms in 2021, the Health Ministry has already finished work on its conceptual proposal.

According to this proposal, the employed population will be making health insurance contributions, the size of which will be set at 1% of social security contributions paid on the minimum wage. As the minimum wage grows, so will the health insurance contributions, the minister said.

Viņķele also said that the list of state-insured persons, which currently includes groups like pensioners and certain categories of disabled people, would be expanded.

The health minister said that the group of persons not included in the insurance system will be small. At the start of each year, they would be required to make a €51 health insurance payment so they too could have access to all government-funded healthcare services.

Viņķele said that the World Health Organization (WHO) also supports such a small but mandatory health insurance contribution.

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