Compulsory medical insurance agreed for migrant workers

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In April 2004, the Ministry of Labour and the social partners agreed to implement a previous agreement on mandatory healthcare insurance for migrant workers in Cyprus.

At a meeting held on 21 April 2004 at the Department of Labour of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, the social partners agreed immediately to implement a Ministerial Committee decision taken on 15 December 2003 with regard to medical care for migrant workers in Cyprus (CY0311103F). This decision makes healthcare insurance for migrant workers mandatory and also makes such cover a precondition for issuing entry permits or renewing temporary residence and work permits to such workers. The decision includes the following provisions:

• insurance costs are to be divided equally, with the employer and the employee each bearing 50%;

• outpatient care is to be provided through trade union funds or insurance companies;

• inpatient healthcare must be covered by health insurance provided by an insurance company, and minimum coverage is set at CYP 5,000 annually; and

• the requirement for health insurance cover must be demonstrated to have been met before a residence permit is issued.

The Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) voiced concern about changes included in the new text of the insurance document on which no prior consultations had been held in the Ministerial Committee. These changes involve:

• meeting the costs of transporting home the bodies of foreigners who die in Cyprus;

• an increase in the maternity allowance from CYP 200 to CYP 300; and

• payment of CYP 100 per day for hospitalisation in intensive care units.

In the view of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, these additions were necessary due to the heavy burden placed on the state budget by the Ministry of Health and were approved by the Ministerial Committee when issuing the relevant decision. The insurance companies furnished the Ministry of Labour with data showing that there are no substantial differences in insurance costs. As an indication of this, it was reported that under trade union schemes the annual insurance premium for people under the age of 39 is around CYP 141 for both inpatient and outpatient care, and CYP 95 for inpatient care only. Since the cost of insurance will be around these levels, during the meeting OEB withdrew the reservations it had expressed previously. Furthermore, the social partners agreed that where there is a sectoral or enterprise-level collective agreement, outpatient (primary) healthcare should be covered by the union schemes, as has been the case so far.

Finally, an OEB demand to exclude domestic workers from mandatory outpatient healthcare was rejected. According to the Ministry of Labour, the Department of Labour is not competent to amend the decision of the Ministerial Committee. Therefore the new provisions on medical care (primary and secondary) will be applied to migrant workers in all sectors, including domestic workers.