Insured patients could purchase supplementary health insurance packages to cover more medical services than the basic package currently provided.
It is highlighted in a draft law prepared by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to replace the 2008 Law on Health Insurance.
As per the draft, supplementary packages would be made in the form of voluntary contracts between insurers and individuals that permit the insured to enjoy health insurance benefits commensurate with premium rates.
The supplementary health insurance fund would be operated independently and autonomously in terms of finance from the current health insurance fund.
The draft adds more benefits for persons participating in basic health insurance packages. Specifically, the insured would have costs of additional services covered, including preventive healthcare, regular health checkups, screening for diagnosis of non-communicable chronic diseases, prenatal and newborn screening, healthcare services provided at home for the elderly and people with disability, and use of products for malnutrition treatment for children aged under six years.
However, costs payable by the state budget or those of convalescence at sanatoria or convalescence facilities, family planning or aesthetic services would not be covered by the health insurance fund.
In addition, the health insurance fund would pay only 95 percent instead of 100 percent of medical care costs as at present for patients that have paid health insurance premiums for five consecutive years or more and have costs paid for medical care in the year higher than six months’ basic salaries, except cases of medical care at health insurance-covered hospitals at improper levels.
The MOH also proposed setting up an independent health insurance assessment agency separately from the current social insurance agency.
The social insurance agency would only perform the task of collecting and paying health insurance premiums, managing the fund and paying charges for the insured’s use of healthcare services.- (VLLF)
