The Standing Committee on Social Policy, Education, Culture
and Science, the Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), and the United Federation of
Employers (UFE) have jointly prepared a new draft health insurance law. This
comes after both unions expressed their dissatisfaction with the contents of a
Government draft on the issue that had been hurriedly reviewed and approved in
June, and that Parliament is expected to discuss in its ensuing Autumn session.
The unions felt the Government had acted unilaterally and gone against the provisions
of the existing tripartite agreement.

Their most serious objection was that the earlier draft
gives the Government and the Health Ministry more authority to manage the
insurance system, in breach of the joint management principle. It also violated
the insured persons’ rights by denying them access to service of their choice,
instead limiting it to that provided by State organizations.