Fair-play Alliance and a platform called slovensko.digital are criticising the government regarding health insurance e-cards. At a joint press conference on Thursday they commonly stated that the state should immediately scrap a multi-million tender on health insurance e-cards, which appear to be superfluous given that the state has already introduced electronic ID cards.
Zuzana Wienk from Fair-play Alliance appealed to the National Centre of Health Information, which is organising the tender. According to her, this state run institution is behaving "as if we were so wealthy that we need to shovel our way through heaps of money - while in reality people have to bring their own toilet paper to hospitals and have to wait for months for important examinations".
According to slovensko.digital representative Michal Truban, the Government's decision is based on a three-page study that appears as if it has been cobbled together by a secondary school student. "No bank and no investor would provide even €10,000 based on such a study", said Truban.
Fair-play Alliance and slovensko.digital at the same time announced that they are filing a complaint at the Finance Ministry and Health Ministry, and turning also to the European Commission to decide whether it's in order to organise a public tender for a service that appears to have already been ensured from EU funds.
The electronic ID cards (eID) can't serve where electronic health insurance cards are needed, the Health Ministry stated on Thursday in reaction to criticism. According to Health Ministry spokesman Peter Bubla, the eIDs are issued only for people older than 15, while those older than 60 don't have to replace their current ID cards for the new electronic ones. "It's necessary to cover the entire population as part of health care, with ePPs being issued to all policyholders from the age of zero until death", said Bubla. Apart from this, Slovak health insurers can also have policy holders who aren't Slovak citizens, and therefore they can't have Slovak eIDs, noted the Health Ministry Spokesperson.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry on Thursday didn't appear to be so enthusiastic about the e-health insurance cards. "The Finance Ministry has asked the Health Ministry to rework the study [on the necessity of these cards] in cooperation with the Interior Ministry, in order to include components already available as part of the eID card project. This means that the eID card could also be used in health care", the Finance Ministry's press department stated for the press agency TASR.
The e-cards, worth €20 million plus further tens of millions for additional hardware and software, should replace as of 2017 the current health insurer identification cards made of paper or plastic.
