Matovic Denies Merger of State Social- and Health-insurance Companies

Bratislava, October 1 (TASR) – Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) at a news conference held at the Government Office on Thursday denied that state-run social-insurance company Socialna poistovna is set to merge with state-run health-insurance company Vseobecna zdravotna poistovna (VsZP).

“I’ve never said anything of the kind. I regret this initiative [to claim such a thing]. Naturally, my goal is to simplify tax and levy collection dramatically. However, I’ve never come up with an initiative in which it was communicated that some ‘behemoth’ should come into being, serving as both a social- and health-insurance company,” stated the prime minister, adding that he plans to announce the method for simplifying tax and levy collection in the next few days.

Finance Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) said that the aim is to improve the quality of people’s lives. “This quality also involves people not having to pay various payments to three or four places, keep in mind deadlines etc.; it can be done much more easily – to pay a single sum to a single place and let the state take care of it,” said Heger.

Dennik N daily reported in late September that Premier Matovic was talking about a possible merger in terms of collecting health- and social-insurance levies and introducing a single social-health levy. “We don’t have it elaborated in detail yet, but I think that this philosophy is correct – to make life as easy as possible for people, who will pay a single levy, and it will then be divided,” head of the OLaNO caucus Michal Sipos told the daily, adding that there shouldn’t be any problem with the caucus supporting the proposal.