For the health insurance company Dovera, a.s., the year of 2008 will be a difficult one, stated its Director General Martin Simun. The reason behind this is legislation, according to which health insurance companies will be able to use only 3.5 percent of collected premiums to cover their administrative costs. For Dovera, this will mean SKK 70 million less than it had at its disposition in 2007, when the cap was four percent. Mr. Simun commented that the health insurer must maintain the extent of legal coverage of health care and preserve also the existing disease prevention products, which are above the extent stipulated by law. He continued that the insurance company will probably not have enough means to develop new preventive products.
Lowering the cap allowed for administrative costs will probably affect also the branch office network and the number of the health insurer's employees. According to Mr. Simun, the company is considering a reduction of the number of its branch offices, which will affect the number of work positions. Mr. Simun continued that the new legislation will not improve health care and will not benefit policyholders. "Changes in laws serve only to make the life of health insurance companies more difficult," Mr. Simun complained. He continued that what he dislikes about the new legislation, which is to come into effect as of January, is that upon its submission, the Health Ministry had not elaborated any impact analyses, but it acted on a political order.
The health insurance company Dovera will have approximately 870,000 policyholders in 2008, and thus maintain its position of the second largest health insurance company on the market. However, the ratio between the policyholders for which the government pays contributions and economically active policyholders is disadvantageous for the company. The state's policyholders will make up 73 percent of all Dovera's policyholders. As the government pays lower insurance premiums for its policyholders, it will have a financial impact on the company. Head of the Financial Departments and Purchase of Health Care Miroslav Zilinek stated that on a higher number of policyholders next year, the company will have approximately the same level of financial sources as in 2007. Nonetheless, Mr. Simun confirmed that Dovera does not intend to withdraw from the market of public health insurance in Slovakia.
(EUR 1 = SKK 33.602 on December 27)