Government supports introducing health tax

  • 2013-04-16

RIGA- Today, the Cabinet of Ministers supported the Health Ministry's motion proposing a new health tax and separating it from personal income taxes, reports LETA.

However, the government set the new tax below 3.65 percent, contrary to what the ministry wanted.

The government reviewed the ministry's concept project on a new health care funding model and recognized the ministry's idea of linking health care and personal income taxes as the best solution. Most likely, it will be implemented as a pilot project in 2014.

The Health Ministry promises that, by introducing compulsory national health insurance, the overall tax burden will not increase. There will be three ways to channel social insurance contributions to health care - they will be made by employees and employers, the state will make social insurance contributions for specific groups of people, those who will not want to participate in the system, will pay 240 lats (341 euros) in social insurance contributions each year on their own.