National Health Insurance Company empowered with control and punishment functions

The National Health Insurance Company will have the right to examine the cases related to administrative contraventions and to impose sanctions for violating the term/way of registering as payer of mandatory health insurance premiums and the calculation rules. The Parliament adopted a relevant bill in first reading in November 16. Under the bill, the persons that will not register as payers of mandatory health insurance premiums in the way and within the term stipulated by the law are liable to fine of 10 to 20 conventional units (200-400 lei). The persons holding important positions that will not fulfil the obligations regarding the management of the financial resources coming from compulsory health insurance funds could pay fines of up to 2,000 lei. The bill also says that the reduction or hiding of the size of mandatory health insurance contributions, of the salary fund and of other payments is punished with a fine equal to the sum that was reduced. Besides the fine, the payer will have to pay the mandatory health insurance premiums calculated from the sum that was reduced from the salary fund and other remunerations or the sum with which the mandatory health insurance premiums were decreased. They will be penalised if the respective sum is not transferred to the account of the National Health Insurance Company in due time. Opposition MPs said that, in fact, these stipulations empower the National Health Insurance Company with control and punishment functions and this runs counter to the head of state’s initiative to reduce the number of such bodies.