Migrant policy

Deputies propose to insure all guest workers on Thursday in the State Duma draft law, which proposes to change the procedure for obtaining medical care in Russia. Its authors were Vladimir Pligin, Sergey Smetanyuk and Alexander Koval. Each a foreigner who comes in Russia will have to earn a work permit to purchase a medical insurance policy. According to independent estimates, in Russia there are from 5 million to 12 million migrants. So insurance companies will be able to count on a noticeable financial recovery.

The authors of the project promise with its help and increase the medical protection of labor migrants, and save the state several billion rubles.

In order to get a work permit in Russia, migrants must be handed over to a lot of documents confirming the absence of infectious diseases, drug addiction and HIV. The authors of the bill note that in the case of the adoption of the bill, certificates will not be provided to the bodies of the Federal Migration Service, as it is now, but to insurance companies. Moreover, migrants will have to submit these documents before receiving work permit.

As stated in the explanatory note to the project, the employer pays a single social tax, including for foreign workers hired by him. For this, employees have the right to medical assistance - both emergency and planned - stationary and outpatient. But if a foreigner did not immediately find a job (or is not looking for it at all), he can still claim emergency medical care. In this case, “the burden of the cost of providing medical care to such a person falls on the state and taxpayers,” the document says.

According to the authors of the bill, the costs of providing medical care to migrants today amount to 300 million to 500 million rubles monthly. Deputies note that if the bill is adopted, the savings of budget funds may amount to 13.5 billion rubles annually.

In the insurance companies, Max, Rosno and RESO-Garantia were initiated with optimism, although they clarified that for the final conclusions it is necessary to know the final insurance conditions. “The insurance of medical expanses of all migrant workers, of course, is a large, although not very tasty market for us,” said Igor Ivanov, deputy general director of RESO -Garantia. - Tariffs and insurance amounts are still unknown, but it is already clear that in crisis times a new market will attract the attention of large players. As for the task of making all migrant workers buy policies, I consider it to be feasible. After all, Schengen was able to force all tourists to buy policies. True, the presence of this policy was a prerequisite for obtaining a visa. ”

01/15/2009 / Ksenia Leonova, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 5 dated 16.01.2009.