| The government intends to increase compensation for benefits Starting next year, transport and medical benefits will be converted into cash. As Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said yesterday at a meeting of the working group on preparing bills to reform the tax and pension systems, the government has decided to significantly increase the amount of cash compensation to benefit recipients. It is also waiting for a response from the Duma. In order not to delay making a decision, the government intends to ask deputies to meet in August and adopt a package of documents on beneficiaries finalized by the government. The deputies (represented by United Russia members, with whom members of the government came to meet yesterday) seemed to agree.
As of January 2005, railway and medical benefits will be forcibly monetized. According to Alexander Zhukov, “in the first year we will take over the right to choose a beneficiary and provide him with the cash equivalent of his benefit, but after a year he will be able to choose what is more profitable for him.” The Deputy Prime Minister explained such “authoritarian” behavior of the government by saying that the Ministry of Health and Social Development simply will not be able to process the entire flow of applications for beneficiaries who have chosen one form or another of receiving benefits in six months.
As the Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov assured, beneficiaries will not regret it if they switch to cash state subsidies. In reality, on average across the country, pensioners' benefits for medicines are financed at the rate of 48-50 rubles per month per person, taking into account the fact that pharmacies often do not have the necessary medicines, and doctors, under various pretexts, refuse to issue prescriptions. “We offer pensioners 500 rubles in real money,” the minister assured. Mr. Zurabov named Germany as the ideal social security system to which the reform of the benefit system will strive, where 70% of payments to pensioners are pensions themselves, and 30% are other additional payments. The health care supplement, for example, is 95 euros, which goes toward health insurance through the state insurance company. A German pensioner, if desired, can withdraw this money, add a certain amount and insure himself with a private company. Minister Zurabov intends to lead Russians to a similar model in the near future.
The government is still not losing hope of persuading the largest city of pensioners, Moscow, to join the package of monetization of medical benefits. “You say your veteran costs 3,500 rubles in medical benefits, add our 1.5 thousand rubles. to compensate for treatment and travel by rail and offer them 5 thousand rubles each, will your pensioners really refuse? - Deputy Prime Minister Zhukov asked the capital authorities in absentia.
In addition to all the benefits listed, pensioners are lured into benefits and types of services that are outlandish for them. The proposal to introduce full-fledged metal-ceramic dental prosthetics (instead of poor metal structures, the installation of which has to wait for years) and joint replacement (for a fracture, for example, of the femoral neck) into the system of compulsory health insurance for pensioners is being seriously considered.
True, in order to take advantage of such benefits in old age, you will still have to prove your right to them. In the near future, a “census” of all beneficiaries will be held in the country. Officially this will be called “listing”. True, whether you won’t have to go to the social security service and wait in line there to register your right to benefits is another question.
Russians are against the monetization of benefits
According to ROMIR-Monitoring surveys, more than half of Russians cannot exercise their right to receive benefits, but they are wary of their transfer into cash. At the height of the May discussions in the Duma around the government bill, 1,600 people were surveyed. Only 16% of respondents said they fully approved of the proposal, and another 20% said they were willing to agree to it under certain conditions. 38% of Russians were categorically against changing the existing form of social support, 21% said they “rather do not approve” of such a replacement, and 5% found it difficult to answer. Meanwhile, at the end of July last year, ROMIR specialists were already analyzing the opinion of Russians regarding the system of benefits. Then 44% of respondents reported that they have the right to receive various types of assistance from the state, but are not always able to implement it. At the same time, 52% called the process of obtaining benefits due to them by law “difficult” or even “very difficult.” Irina SKLYAROVA |
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