Finance minister Yuriko Backes and health minister Paulette Lenert at the presentation of the CNS financial results on Wednesday.  MSS

Finance minister Yuriko Backes and health minister Paulette Lenert at the presentation of the CNS financial results on Wednesday.  MSS

The quadripartite committee on 4 May brought together the ministries of health, social security and finances to talk about the national health fund’s bleeding budget.

Despite receiving support from the economy and social security ministries in the shape of a €386m grant--to be spread over four years--the CNS has recorded a €55.7m loss for 2021, bringing its savings down from €858.9m to 903.2m. The €3,576.3m revenue accumulated from the positive increase in employment and subsequent affiliations to the fund “cannot fully compensate for the evolution of expenditure in 2021,” according to a joint statement.  

The fund’s reserves remain largely above the 10% minimum set by the social security code, the ministries say in the statement. Previously, the deficit for 2021 had been estimated to reach as high as €100.8m, but higher revenues than expected (+32.4m) and lower expenses (-12.6m) mitigated that forecast.

One of the causes for the continued bleed in the fund is the cost of the covid-19 pandemic. “By 31 March 2022, all Covid-19 measures paid for by the CNS but reimbursed by the state had an overall cost of €417.5m (after deducting charges advanced by the state for the CNS amounting to €14m). By 2021, extended family leave had cost €50m, while the same scheme had a cost of €238m in 2020,” the ministries explain.

For 2022, the cost had already accumulated to €11m by the end of March. Expenses linked to the coronavirus, such as PCR tests, additional hospital costs, exemptions from work for pregnant women also burned a hole through the CNS’s budget, amounting to a total of €3,632m since February 2020.

The downwards trend that had already been noted in 2020 is set to continue. The ministries estimate a deficit of €48.1m for day-to-day operations in 2022. To address this issue, health minister Paulette Lenert (LSAP) suggested the creation of a working group composed of the ministry of social security, the National Health Fund, the social partners, the general inspectorate of social security and the general inspectorate of finance, to analyse and propose possible ways of ensuring financial balance. The results of their work will be published during the next quadripartite committee in autumn.

During the press conference, the committee also highlighted some of its progress, in particular in the coverage of costs relating to dental care.