SaS Wants to Soften Impact of Transaction Tax on Health Care

Bratislava, April 14 (TASR) - The opposition SaS party wants to reduce the impact of the transaction tax on the health-care sector via an amendment to the Act on the Financial Transaction Tax, MP Tomas Szalay (SaS) announced at a press conference on Monday. The proposal, sponsored by SaS, states that all health-care providers should be exempt from the transaction tax without exception. Szalay pointed out that currently only state hospitals, as budgetary organisations, are exempt from the tax. "At the end of the day, it's the Slovak patient who will bear the brunt of the transaction tax in health care, either through the higher fees that they will have to pay, or through reduced access to health-care services, as providers may refuse to continue participating in such a system, or may cancel their contracts altogether," stated Szalay, calling for a complete exemption from the transaction tax for all health-care providers. The MP urged Parliament to approve the motion, pointing out that several associations have appealed to the European Commission over the transaction tax due to violations of economic competition. "So, I propose we take the shorter route and approve our bill, which abolishes the transaction tax in health-care," he said. MP Marian Viskupic (SaS) believes that the transaction tax harms not only patients but everyone. "The best and only reasonable solution is to abolish it entirely," he stated. mf/df