Sasko Wants to Raise Issue of Transaction Tax Impacts on Health Sector in House

Bratislava, 12 June (TASR) - As he's promised, Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) is ready to raise the issue of the transaction tax's impacts on the health-care sector and patients during the parliamentary debate on the financial transaction tax law, the Health Ministry's communications department has told TASR, adding that the ministry won't provide any partial information on the ongoing negotiations for now. Parliament should deal with the respective draft amendment in September. At the same time, the ministry said that the minister is working intensively to improve the situation in the outpatient sector. "He's in direct contact with representatives of health-care providers, communicating with them on a regular basis, and this week he also signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Outpatient Health-care Providers Association," added the ministry. Representatives of both outpatient departments and hospitals are demanding to be exempted from the transaction tax. The Association of Outpatient Health-care Providers and the Association of Private Doctors have told TASR that the transaction tax is costing their clinics hundreds of euros extra per month. They warned that if it isn't scrapped, patients will have to pay for the clinics' additional costs. The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) parties have called in this context for the exemption of the whole sector from the transaction tax. ko/df