New rules governing voluntary health insurance have been
introduced, to ensure their compliance with EU insurance law.
This involves changes to The Health Insurance Act,
including:
- a requirement for voluntary health insurance to be provided
by insurers (licensed under the Insurance Code) instead of by
health insurance companies (licensed under the Health Insurance
Act).
- a deadline of 6 August 2013 for existing health insurance
companies to bring their activities into compliance with the
Insurance Code and to become licensed for the relevant classes of
insurance. Their current licences will cease to be valid from
7 August 2013. The changes will affect 19 health insurance
companies (according to the data from the FSC's public
register). Instead of obtaining an insurance license, they
could close, or merge with or transfer their portfolios to an
existing insurer.
- existing voluntary health insurance agreements will remain
valid until the earlier of their expiry or 7 August 2013.
- a new 'Health (medical) insurance' section has been
added to the Insurance Code. This requires medical insurance
agreements to cover risks resulting from sickness or accident (i.e.
the expenses for specified medical products and services), and also
permits them to cover expenses for preventative measures, pregnancy
and birth, transport, specialised or palliative care etc.
This class of insurance can be for an unlimited term, in which case
rising of the premium to reflect the ageing and declining health of
the insured is not allowed.
- Permanent health insurance, covering loss of income due to
sickness or accidental injury, continues to exist either as a
stand-alone policy or as part of the health (medical) insurance
cover.
- Insurers licensed to provide insurance for sickness and/or
accident (general insurance classes) can be licensed for life
insurance as well. Only insurers licensed to provide
insurance for sickness (or sickness and accident) can include in
their company names all or some of the words "voluntary",
"health" and "insurance" (in Bulgarian
"осигуряване")
or derivatives thereof in Bulgarian or in another
language.
- Fees for visiting the doctor or dentist or spending a night
in hospital (for up to 10 days a year) will be set by decree of the
Council of Ministers instead of being based on the minimum
wage. Current fee levels will apply until the first such
decree.
- Compulsory health insurance contributions may not be
imposed for periods when the individual is covered by the EU health
insurance scheme (and has given advance notice of this to the
National Revenue Agency).
Law:
- Health Insurance Act, published in State
Gazette, Issue No. 70, dated 19 June 1998, as amended;
- Amendment to the Health Insurance Act,
published in State Gazette, issue No. 60, dated 7 August 2012, in
effect as of 7 August 2012;
- Insurance Code, published in State Gazette,
Issue No. 103, dated 23 December 2005, as amended.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 23/08/2012.