The health insurance policies will be available at half-price during the first three months next year, PM Vasile Tarlev told the Government sitting on Wednesday, October 3. The Premier’s statement came after the authorities last week announced that policies will be raised by 50% to 1,893 lei, as provided by the draft Law on mandatory health insurance for 2008. According to Gheorghe Russu, director of the National Company for Health Insurance (CNAM), the decision to grant this discount was made because a relatively low number of unemployed persons are purchasing health insurance policies. Based on CNAM information, from the start of the year some 19,000 unemployed persons purchased policies, a number similar to the one registered last year. The mandatory health insurance policy costs this year 1,209 lei, up by 400 lei from last year. Under the draft Law on mandatory health insurance for 2008, the mandatory health insurance premium will rise to 6% of the monthly salary. 3% will be paid by the employer and the remaining 3% by the employee. This year the statutory health insurance premium constitutes 5% of the monthly salary, as compared with 4% in 2006, equally split between the employer and the employee.