Health insurer director not stepping down after premier’s phone call

State-run health insurer Vseobecna zdravotna poistovna (VsZP) director Miroslav Kočan does not intend to resign following the angry phone call that he received from Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday, video footage of which was then posted by Fico on Facebook, said Health Minister Tomáš Drucker (a Smer-SD nominee) at a press conference on Wednesday. In the phone conversation, Fico slammed Kočan for what he described as a "nonsensical" recovery plan for VsZP. Meanwhile, Health Minister Drucker on Wednesday stated that he still trusts Kočan, even though "we need to learn from our mistakes". As for Fico's call, Drucker described it as the result of a failure in communication by the Health Ministry and VšZP to explain that the recovery plan would not in fact come at the expense of patients.