Gazeta Prawna, 31.07.2008

Religa tax to be lifted - policy prices to stay the same

The government has proposed to replace the so called Religa tax (12% levy on every MTPL policy) with a system allowing the National Heath Fund to demand covering actual medical treatment costs from perpetrators, which if they held a liability policy would be recovered from insurance companies. The government draft has a serious flaw, however.

The National Health Fund would have to claim compensation directly from uninsured drivers because the draft does not provide that claims should be lodged with the Insurance Guarantee Fund, remarks Piotr Kaczanowski, vice-chairman of ProMotor.

Now, the Guarantee Fund pays for losses caused by uninsured drivers but also claims compensation from them by means of recovery. Giving the Health Fund the right to claim compensation also seems natural. Still, the complexity of the proposed settlement system between the fund and insurers may pose considerable problems. There are no clear rules for valuation of medical services, which are different depending on method used or place where service is provided. This can be disputed by insurance companies and the National Health Fund.

Our proposal is therefore to adopt a system similar to the one used, e.g. in Austria, where there is as simplified price list of individual medical services, said Franz Fuchs, chairman of ProMotor.

He added that this way the burden laid on insurance companies could fall from approx 800m PLN, which would be paid towards the fund this year, down to 300-400m PLN. He also noted that the introduction of Religa tax caused MTPL policy prices to go up by 5-7%. Unfortunately, Religa tax being lifted will not mean lower prices, as the insurance market reports that new kinds of burden keep appearing, which has to be compensated with increased tariffs, said Piotr Kaczanowski.