Damjanović: The sources of financing contributions must be defined by law

On the occasion of the announcement by the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare that the bill abolishing contributions to health insurance is in accordance with the Constitution, former deputy Aleksandar Damjanović spoke out, whose statement, among others, was referred to in the announcement of that government department.

"Without the intention of polemics, but solely with the intention of implementing the idea of ​​health care financing in a constitutional and legal way, in addition to the arguments already presented, I point out several more problems that will appear if the method of implementation is not changed. First, the Law on Mandatory Health Care insurance is a systemic law and no other law can change the norms of the systemic law, because this violates the unity of the legal order, which is constitutionally unacceptable. Article 57 paragraph 1 point 1 of the Law stipulates that the financing of compulsory health insurance is provided from contributions for compulsory health insurance, which will continue to be a valid norm in the system, even though the second Law on Contributions for Compulsory Social Security is repealed. Therefore, the sources of funding must be predictable and defined by law to ensure health care, which is now being brutally abolished, because loses both the legal basis and predictability. Simply, this or the next Government will not have a legal basis in the future and will not have to transfer a single cent to the health care budget, because the existing legal obligation to pay contributions is abolished," said Damjanović.

He added that the proposed amendments to the Law on Contributions for Mandatory Social Insurance threaten the health care of all categories of persons, especially those from Article 69 of the Civil Code. 2 of the Constitution (children, pregnant women, the elderly and persons with disabilities), because sources of funding are called into question, i.e. it is left to the discretion of whether, when and how much money will be transferred for that, currently, legally binding category.

"And finally, the constitutional norm from Article 67 on mandatory social insurance cannot be directly applied without legal elaboration, which is abolished in this way. Therefore, it is clear that, instead of violating the Constitution and disrupting the legal order by abolishing the mandatory contribution to health insurance, which leaves it up to this or another government whether and how much funds to transfer to the Health Care Fund, the only constitutional, legal and common-sense way is to set the health care contribution rate at 0 percent. will not depend on the will of this or any government," concluded Damjanović.