Ministries of Finance and Health at odds over nature of National Health Fund

The Interior and Finance Ministries have challenged some solutions proposed by the Health Ministry in the draft of the law introducing the National Hea lth Fund (NFZ) from next year, and it looks as though these differences will not be easily settled. The government and Parliament are to work on the bill after the summer recess, but some serious differences have already emerged. The Interior Ministry wants a fund to be created for public administration employees, the army, police and railway workers, separate from the main fun d. Meanwhile, the latter would include farmers and the unemployed, for whom the budget only pays minimum premiums. "This would mean a division between the rich and the poor," said Health Minister Mariusz Lapinski. The Finance Ministry strongly opposes the Health Ministry's plans to successively incre ase the health insurance premiums from the current 7.75% of payroll to 9%. This would occur either through higher taxes or at the expense of the cent ral budget, thus increasing the budget deficit. The Ministry is also sugges ting that the NFZ should not be a special-purpose fund, as this could lead to mismanagement, but rather a part of the central budget. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A4) T.J.