Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Sickness Insurance (Industry) Convention, 1927 (No. 24) - Hungary (Ratification: 1928)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its latest report. It also notes the comments put forward by the employees’ representatives in the National ILO Council, which discussed the report, and the reply made by the Government in this regard.

According to the employees’ representatives, by terminating the social insurance self-government and thus placing sickness insurance under the control of the Government, effect is not given to Article 6 of the Convention. This provision of the Convention only allows the direct administration of sickness insurance by the State as long as its administration is rendered difficult or inappropriate by reason of the insufficient development of the employers’ and workers’ organizations. The employees’ representatives stressed that employers and employees have equally been formed and are operational at the national level. In these circumstances, the conditions are fulfilled to allow the functioning of the self-government institutions.

In its reply the Government stated that the supervision and management of the National Health Insurance Fund has been transferred under the Government’s competency by Act No. XXXIX of 1998 following a ruling of the Constitutional Court. Having investigated the legitimacy of self-government, the Constitutional Court stated in its resolution No. 16/1998 that “entrusting the delegation process on the employees’ national representative organization is not, at the current level of unionization, adequate to ensure the legitimacy to insurance representatives required by section 2 of the Constitution”. The Government sets out the reasons that led the Constitutional Court to their conclusion as to the lack of democratic legitimacy of the organizations. The Constitutional Court’s resolution did not judge unconstitutional in itself the creation of social insurance self-government through delegation; it considered that the task of the legislature is to create regulations that ensure democratic legitimacy. The Government adds that in the absence of appropriate legislation the situation has not changed even after the Constitutional Court’s resolution and therefore the conditions for creating legitimate self-government do not apply in the health insurance system.

The Committee notes this information. It asks the Government to ensure that, in accordance with Article 6 of the Convention, the sickness insurance scheme is administered by self-governing institutions and that the insured persons participate in the management of these institutions. The provisions of this Article do not exclude the possibility that the administration of the said institutions shall be under the administrative and financial supervision of the competent public authorities. The Committee expresses the hope that in accordance with the Constitutional Court’s resolution the Government will take the necessary steps to enable the adoption of the appropriate regulations. It asks the Government to indicate any progress made in this regard.

In addition, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply a copy of a translated version of Act No. LXXXIII on the services of the compulsory health insurance and its regulations, if available.