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Parliament Approves Merger of Two State Health Insurers
Thursday 03 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 3 (TASR) - Slovakia will only have one state health-insurer instead of current two after 79 MPs on Thursday approved the merger of Vseobecna Zdravotna Poistovna (VsZP) and Spolocna Zdravotna Poistovna (SZP).
The merger, which was dealt with via a fast-tracked procedure, will come into effect (after President Ivan Gasparovic's signature) on December 21.
SDKU-DS MP Viliam Novotny in October described the merger as just a new way of diverting attention from the real problems facing the healthcare sector. According to him, the Government is just keeping people entertained by merging the two health-insurance companies instead of resolving problems such as the poor quality of healthcare services and the low salaries paid to employees in the sector.
The Health Ministry argues that the merger of the state-run health-insurers will benefit patients, claiming that if the merger isn't carried out by the end of the year, the state will suffer extensive economic losses connected to the global financial crisis.
The two insurance companies should merge in January, with VsZP remaining with over 3.5 million clients. The consolidation project will last until 2011. This step should significantly cushion the effects of the global financial crisis by reducing duplicate activities, costs and contracts.
A merger has also been announced by private health-insurance companies Dovera and Apollo, with Dovera remaining with approximately 1.4 million clients.
This means that as of next year there will only be three health-insurers on the Slovakia market - state-owned VsZP and private insurers Dovera and Union.
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