Sick and Maternity Leave to reach balance of €892.5m in 2018

The Quadripartite Committee met on Wednesday 30 May 2018 at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce to discuss matters such as sick and maternity leave.

Under the presidency of Luxembourg Minister of Social Security Romain Schneider, in close collaboration with Minister of Health Lydia Mutsch, the Quadripartite Committee first examined the current financial situation of sick and maternity leave in Luxembourg, as well as the latest financial forecasts.

According to the latest data, the current account balance should be €155.4 million euros for 2018, after a balance of €150 million euros in 2017. Thus, the cumulative overall balance of health and maternity insurance should reach €892.5 million euros by the end of 2018, representing an overall balance rate of 31.4% compared to current expenditure.

Next on the agenda were discussions of improvements to sick and maternity leave, provided by the National Health Fund. Romain Schneider presented the state of progress in the implementation of these improvements following the agreement in principle reached at the last meeting of the Quadripartite Committee in October 2017. These improvements are in line with those adopted in 2016, the aim of which is a continuous improvement of policyholders' access to quality services. The improvements that the Minister has put forward fell into three main areas: the reduction of expenses incumbent on families; the consideration of serious and chronic diseases in the context of reimbursements; the modernisation of care standards.

The new health and maternity insurance benefits currently in place include increasing the age limit from 25 to 30 years for the reimbursement of the contraceptive pill and the IUD, the reimbursement by CNS pneumococcal vaccination for the elderly, benefits related to lipoedema, the first pilot project to improve the management of diabetes and the reimbursement of certain medical devices related to cancer.

Lydia Mutsch also presented the progress of work concerning the implementation of the law of 8 March 2018 on hospital establishments and hospital planning, which came into force on 1 April 2018. The Minister explained the procedures put in place, in collaboration with the management bodies, so that hospitals can submit their applications and plans for operating licenses or services in electronic form (via a computer platform "Share point"); the goal is to facilitate as much as possible these applications.

The ministers also reiterated their political will to identify, from 2018 until 2020, sustainable solutions to the multiple challenges facing the emergency services. A first step, which will be launched in the coming weeks, will consist of a broad information campaign on the Luxembourg health system explaining the reasons for using emergencies rather than GPs and the mobile application "dispodoc" helping to find a generalist who is available nearby, even after office hours, for minor health problems.