Employees’ health, the dominant topic of the meeting of CNSM leaders with CNAM administration

A constructive, transparent dialogue. This is how Oleg Budza, president of CNSM, characterized the meeting held today, 26 January, between the leadership of the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) and the administration of the National Health Insurance Company (CNAM).

According to CNSM president, several issues related to the health of employees, trade union members, have been addressed. In particular, trade unions show their interest in making the doctor’s work more accessible to the patient, and the quality of medical services being higher.

Another concern of the CNSM leadership is the implementation of the ILO Convention No.161 on Occupational Health Services, which provides for the organization of health checks at enterprises, the elaboration of proposals to remove or mitigate the factors causing the professional illnesses. “From this perspective, we count a lot on the support of the CNAM administration,” Oleg Budza said.

He also remarked that trade unions are working hard to raise more financial resources in compulsory health insurance funds in the formal economy, but without addressing the issue of raising contributions because it is a sensitive issue for employees, especially for those who have small wages.

At the meeting, the CNSM leadership advocated for examining the opportunity to personalize a part of the individual medical insurance contribution. As an alternative, trade unions are proposing to carry out mandatory annual health checks for all employees on account of their contribution or medical insurance policy.

Oleg Budza expressed his hope of reaching a common denominator with the CNAM administration, so that the volume of transfers from the state budget to the compulsory health insurance funds should be proportional to the share of the employees’, the employers’ contributions.

Dumitru Parfentiev, general manager of the National Health Insurance Company, in his turn appreciated the meeting with the leadership of the CNSM as a punctual discussion, in which efforts were made to identify common solutions for trade union claims. Moreover, he pointed out that CNAM and the trade unions are partners on several communication platforms, such as the tripartite commission, direct negotiations, the CNAM Board, which makes it easier to identify employees’ health problems, solutions for them, and the money paid by them to be used more efficiently for the benefit of patients, many of whom are trade union members.

Department of mass media and international relations of CNSM