CONFEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS SAYS HEALTH INSURANCE MUST BE INDEPENDENT FROM GOVERNMENT
The Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions (CMTU) held a press conference regarding the national health insurance system, noting the need to maintain independence from the government and the Ministry of Health.
“We are actively opposed to the decision to transfer authority over the national health insurance to the Ministry of Health. The move is in direct conflict with the Law on Health Insurance,” said a CMTU spokesperson during the press conference.
The decision to transfer authority over the health insurance program to the ministry has not yet been finalized. The national health insurance program is headed by the National Council on Health Insurance.
According to the confederation, the national council has not convened at all as of yet.
CMTU stressed that it would be a breach of the Law on Health Insurance by Cabinet and Parliament to transfer authority to the Ministry of Health.
President of CMTU Kh.Amgalanbaatar said that the issue of transferring authority cannot be discussed when the National Council on Health Insurance has not even convened once. He added that the council must convene and that the issue of transferring authority should be the first topic on the agenda.
“The funds in the national health insurance fund are not the funds of Cabinet. The health insurance fund belongs to the workers who pay a portion of their salary as a fee. For this reason, as owners of the fund, workers should have the authority. The National Council on Health Insurance, which functions to represent the workers, must have a say on this issue,” stated Kh.Amgalanbaatar.
Kh.Amgalanbaatar was reelected as the president of CMTU during the 22nd annual convention of the confederation on November 8. More than 2,300 members of the confederation from 36 member organizations took part in the convention to elect a president.
During the convention, the confederation also outlined its objectives for the next four years. In addition, changes were made to the rules and procedures of CMTU to allow amendments to be made if a majority of members votes for it.
“We determined that a trade union is not an ideological organization but an overlapping collection of the interests of workers,” reported Kh.Amgalanbaatar.
In order to diminish the role of politics in CMTU, members voted to include an amendment in the rules prohibiting elected officials of the confederation to be a member of political parties.
“Those who have finished their term as an elected official of CMTU or members who are not elected officials will be allowed to exercise their right given to them by the Constitution to become a member of any political party,” Kh.Amgalanbaatar asserted.