Text file: 5475.txt
author: Marija Krajnc
downvotes: 3
end consideration date: 2014-02-18
id: '5475'
number comments: 14
number views: 2874
proposal type: Competent authority response
response: 'Response from the Ministry of Health

  The right to a funeral allowance and the right to a death grant are by their nature
  social rights, not rights that guarantee the health care of insured persons. Historically,
  both rights are a remnant of the social insurance system that was once in place,
  which included health insurance, pension insurance, invalidity insurance, maternity
  insurance and insurance for the right to child benefit. Due to their nature, they
  were deleted from the Health Care and Health Insurance Act and included in the amendment
  to the Health Care and Health Insurance Act as two new rights of a social nature:
  - a special form of emergency cash social assistance following the death of a family
  member, and - a special form of emergency cash social assistance to help cover the
  costs of a funeral.

  The right to a funeral allowance was regulated in Article 37 of the Law on Health
  Care and Health Insurance (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 72/06 - Official consolidated
  text, 114/06 - ZUTPG, 91/07, 76/08, 62/10 - ZUPJS, 87/11, 40/12 - ZUJF, 21/13 -
  ZUTD-A, 63/13 - ZIUPTDSV, 91/13 and 99/13 - ZUPJS-C; hereinafter referred to as:
  ZZVZZ) and provided that upon the death of an insured person, the funeral allowance
  was due to the person who had arranged the funeral. The death grant, as regulated
  in Article 38 of the ZZVZZ, was a form of one-off financial assistance on the death
  of the insured person, which was due to the members of the insured person''s family
  who had supported him or her until his or her death. Both rights were never, by
  their very definition, health rights and were therefore non-systemic in the context
  of compulsory health insurance. Both entitlements constituted a kind of social correction,
  paid by the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia after the death of the insured
  person to his/her dependants or to the person who took care of the funeral.

  Over the years, the Ministry of Health has repeatedly pointed out that the regulation
  of these rights in the ZZVZZ is inadequate, but last year, in accordance with a
  previous agreement, the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
  abolished this unsystematic regulation and regulated the rights in a different way
  and under different conditions in the ZSVarPre (Articles 34a and 34b).

  Accordingly, the Ministry of Health will not reintroduce the right to a funeral
  allowance and the right to a death grant as compulsory health insurance benefits,
  as proposed in the proposal, as these are social benefits which should not and cannot
  be covered by compulsory health insurance.'
response date: 2014-04-22
response due date: null
sent date: 2014-01-20
title: Cancellation of the right to a death grant under compulsory sickness insurance
upvotes: 31
url: https://predlagam.vladi.si/predlog/5475
