Gov't Approves Boosting Capital of State-run Health Insurer by €100 mn
Bratislava, October 7 (TASR) – The state will boost the capital of state-run health insurer Vseobecna zdravotna poistovna (VsZP) by €100 million, Economy Minister Richard Sulik (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) told a press briefing on Wednesday, adding that this move was approved by the Government at its session on the same day.
Sulik claims that this isn’t forbidden state aid and that the process will take place prudently in an effort to eliminate the risk of litigation. He referred to a dispute concerning health-insurance companies in which Slovakia succeeded at the Court of Justice in Luxembourg. In June, the court upheld a European Commission decision as of 2014 that various measures taken in favour of state health-insurance companies didn’t violate state aid rules, thereby dismissing a complaint submitted by Slovak private health insurer Dovera.
The Government discussed the proposal for boosting VsZP capital at its session last week (September 30). Finance Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) said at that time that the materials needed to be discussed in a calm manner by the Coalition Council.
Both private health insurance companies, Dovera and Union, consider this step to be unfair. Heger sees no reason why the state should share in losses when private health insurers didn’t want to share their profits. State-run VsZP responded by saying that the steps related to boosting its capital are fully within the powers of its sole shareholder.
