On October 9, Kazakhstan's Health Minister Azhar Giniyat revealed plans to involve more than 3.3mn Kazakhstani citizens in the social health insurance system. The government intends to use both incentives and prohibitions to achieve this goal.
Giniyat explained that an analysis of the population's involvement in the compulsory health insurance system was conducted based on the Digital Family Card, which identified more than 3.3mn uninsured individuals. These include unemployed or self-employed individuals without a confirmed permanent income and those with the social status of the unemployed.
The government intends to cover an additional 1.5mn people from the uninsured categories C, D, and E to achieve at least 90-95% population coverage. The plan is to allocate a budget of KZT 77bn from 2025 to KZT 85bn in 2030 for this purpose.
To accomplish this goal, the government introduced an alternative mechanism of compulsory health insurance for independent contributors by paying contributions 12 months in advance. Additionally, from May 1, 2023, imputed medical insurance for migrant workers and students was introduced. As of now, 8,497 contracts with insurance companies have been concluded, and the expected amount of revenues is KZT 41.2bn. From 2025, every citizen will be required to file a mandatory tax return. This way, the income of uninsured citizens will be known, and around 700,000 people will be included in the compulsory health insurance. The government plans to insure approximately 1.5mn people living in low-income rural areas from budget funds to achieve a coverage of at least 95% by 2026.
Currently, contributions to the compulsory health insurance system of citizens earning more than KZT 700,000 are limited.
In response to the Minister's speech, the press service of the Ministry of Health clarified that the Minister was referring to the issuance of licenses to carry weapons and driving licenses. The Ministry of Health believes that such documents should only be issued to citizens who are present in the compulsory health insurance system. The Ministry stated that this rule is consistent with common Western practice, where all other rights are granted to a person only after medical insurance. On September 9, former Governor of Pavlodar region Abylkar Skakov commented on his appointment as Chairman of the Board of the Social Insurance Fund.
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