After several years of efforts to revise regulations for health and nursing insurance, the Ministry of Finance is close to implementing a new regime in these markets, starting in 2016. The Ministry of Finance today announced that Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon had signed final regulations for enforcing a uniform health insurance policy for surgery and non-surgical treatment designed as an alternative to surgery in Israel. The Ministry of Finance also presented a revised draft for regulations for a uniform collective nursing insurance policy for health fund members.
The measure is the final element in health insurance reform led by the Ministry of Finance Capital Market, Insurance, and Savings Department, headed by Dorit Salinger, in which the principles for the new arrangement were previously published by the department in circulars and drafts. In both cases, the regulations do not require Knesset approval.
Starting in February 2016, only the uniform policy enabling the policyholder to select a surgeon, a doctor for a second opinion, and a hospital, beyond the state health services basket, will be allowed in the insurance market, including for collective policies. Such policies already exist, but they will become identical for all the companies. The Ministry of Finance said, "Publication of the regulations is part of a plan for bolstering competition in health insurance. The regulations are in addition to the circulars published over the past six months, enabling the policyholder to choose the insurance policy suitable for his needs, banning making the purchase of one product contingent on a second one, and requiring adjustment of prices during a period."
Salinger's uniform policy states that the uniform health insurance will be for a period of up to two years, and will be renewed annually in June. When the policy is renewed, with changes in the terms conducted uniformly for all policyholders in the same program, the insurance companies will be permitted to renew the policy and raise the price without obtaining the policyholder's explicit consent, if the increase in price is up to NIS 10 a month (NIS 120 a year), or amounts to up to 20% of the most recent premium, compared with the monthly premium paid by the policyholder before his policy is renewed, and takes place once every two years.
In any case, the Ministry of Finance says, "After the uniform policy becomes effective, the Capital Market, Insurance, and Savings Department plans to publish a calculation tool for comparing the prices of the policy, so that "the calculator will enhance transparency, and lead to lower premiums."
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance presented the draft regulations creating the uniform policy for nursing insurance through the health funds. This framework states that the health funds must have a uniform policy starting in January 2016 that will include free switching between funds, while maintain the policyholders' accumulated rights.
This is a partial solution by the Ministry of Finance to the problem of policyholders with collective nursing insurance policies who are not health fund members, whose existing policies will expire at the end of the year (unless the Ministry of Finance again extends the temporary order allowing them).
The uniform policy will include uniform coverage for a nursing patient's hospitalization at home or in an institution, depending on what age he joined the insurance, for a period of up to five years.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 4, 2015
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