The government is working on fixing the vaccination for foreigners as they were not included on the list of candidates for vaccination. The legislation has been put in the process of adopting new measures allowing citizens living in Slovakia to be vaccinated no matter whether they are contributing to health insurance in Slovakia or not.
About 150 thousand foreigners are living in the territory of the Slovak Republic, among them employees, entrepreneurs, students, volunteers and athletes. When applying for the vaccination, applicants have to tick in the form the name of their health insurer. This turned out to be a problem for many of the foreigners living in Slovakia.
As Aljona Kurotova, a representative of the International Association of Doctors in Slovakia said for RTVS, there was the case of a 10 year old foreigner who has been living in this country since 2016 with the whole of his family. "Despite the fact that he wanted to even pay as a private entity for health insurance, he was not eligible for doing so due to Slovak legislation," said Kurotova.
The government has approved several amendments including the inoculation of foreigners. The Health Ministry is to outline further details. Zuzana Földesová of the Health Ministry informed: "If the person is insured with a public health insurer, the costs will be covered by the public health insurance. If they are not insured with a public health insurer, it will be covered by the Health Ministry."
The amendment has to be approved also by the Parliament and so foreigners will have to wait for the changes to come into force.
Nevertheless, the situation of foreigners working at embassies is different as they are included in the critical infrastructure. Their inoculation was planned by the Foreign Ministry. Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Klus confirmed for RTVS that the Ministry is starting the vaccination of the diplomatic corps. "It should be, however, based on the principle of reciprocity because this way it will be possible to vaccinate Slovak diplomats working abroad," added Klus.
Following criticism and discussion, the government decided to make vaccination possible also for the homeless and those who are not contributing to public health insurance.
Source: RTVS
