Health insurance policy will cost by almost 300 lei more this year

This year the size of the premium for the mandatory health insurance policy will stay unchanged at 7% of the salary, split evenly between the employer and employee. For the unemployed and other categories, the policy will be available for sale at a price of 2772 lei, as compared to 2478 lei last year, under the draft law on the mandatory health insurance funds for 2011 approved by the Government. 50% discounts will be available for the unemployed and self-employed if the policies are bought until March 31. Land owners will enjoy both a 75% discount and a great extension of the time limit until they can buy the policy with the discount: considering the timiframe of the harvesting season, this was fixed at September 31. Deputy Health Minister Viorel Soltan says it is anticipated that in 2011 over 36,000 unemployed and self-employed persons will buy policies, compared to 32,000 in 2010. But the salary deductions will remain the bulk part of the revenue to the mandatory health insurance fund – 1.64 billion lei, as compared to 42.7 million lei in premiums from the individually bought policies. The state will subsidize the Health Fund with 1.98 billion lei which will increase it to 3.67 billion lei, a 7% increment from last year.