The first meeting of the Milli Majlis Health Committee in the 2022 autumn session that took place on 20 September the committee chairman Ahliman Amiraslanov opened by wishing the MPs success during the current session of parliament.

Mr Amiraslanov referred to the latest border provocation of the Armenian side. He wished that the souls of the heroes who had fallen fending that provocation off should rest in peace, that their families and friends have endurance and those wounded in action recover rapidly. The meeting participants then had a minute of silence in the cherished memory of the shahids.

According to the committee head, the agenda consisted of 3 items. Item I was about the work done by the Committee during the 2022 spring and extraordinary parliamentary sessions. Mr Amiraslanov mentioned in this respect the 13 committee meetings held to consider 14 matters withal. He commented on those and underlined the significance of the laws that had been enacted eventually.

Besides, the Health Committee had joined forces with the Labour and Social Policy Committee to organise a hearing in Shusha about the work done to implement compulsory medical insurance, that time’s current status of this process and the plans to fulfil.

Approximately 150 applications and complaints had been addressed to the Committee in the discussed period; all those had been processed duly and certain steps had been taken to resolve the matters brought up in the correspondence. Besides, the committee chairman had received 53 citizens personally.

Ahliman Amiraslanov moved on to Item II, which was the work plan of the Committee for the 2022 autumn session. He mentioned the intended discussion of drafts due to arrive from the legislation subjects as well as the slated issuance of opinions and suggestions. He also spoke of the planned consideration of the Reproductive Health Bill and the scheduled hearing on the current situation in the country in connexion with the coronavirus (COVID-19) and what arrangements are made and are being made in this regard. Besides, there will be amending the regulatory acts concerned with the implementation of compulsory medical insurance, medical waste management and other topics.

Item III was a first-reading Bill containing amendments to the Tax Code and the laws ‘On the Social Insurance’, ‘On the Municipality Financing Basics’, ‘On the Medical Insurance’ and ‘On Encumbrance of Movable Property’. In this instance, the Health Committee was to look at the part of the amendments concerning the Medical Insurance Law, Mr Amiraslanov clarified.

This agenda item was covered by the head of the Social Legislation Department of the Milli Majlis Staff Adil Valiyev.

He said that the amendments had been drawn up in line with the modification of the Tax Code of 3 December 2021 and envisaged the coverage (with the compulsory medical insurance facility) of the following two categories. First, those are the physical persons engaged in the activities listed in Article 220.10 of the Tax Code without retaining hired workforce. Those are arranging wedding parties, festivities and other eventing; performance on musical instruments, dancing and so forth; repairing household utensils and equipment, shoemaking, tailoring, barbering, etc. Second, the amendments in question will also apply to those physical persons who engage in the activities listed in Article 218.4.1 of the Tax Code, again, without retaining hired workforce, namely, passenger and cargo haulage within the territory of the country using transport vehicles either in their possession or in their use (including taxis) or those persons who have such transport operations conducted by other persons acting on a contractual basis. The physical persons in both categories will be able to benefit from the CMI services by paying the premium of 4% of the minimum monthly wage established in the country once the aforementioned amendments have been passed into law.

Considerations were voiced by the deputy committee chairman Rashad Mahmudov and the committee members Ilham Mammadov, Sadagat Valiyeva, Malahat Ibrahimghizi, Kamila Aliyeva and Kamaladdin Gafarov. They talked also about such health-care highlights as increasing the degree of the citizens’ satisfaction while implementing the CMI, expanding the application range of this class, a qualitative improvement of the medications market and making the latter more accessible, and organs transplantation. Opinions and suggestions were made. Besides, the committee’s MPs broached the subjects of medical aid to the shahid families and gazies, legislative regulation of family doctors’ practice and other factors and, last but not least, the importance of an expert check of the Population Health Law.

The MPs found the two-session performance report to be acceptable, approved the current-session work plan and recommended that the Bills considered at the committee meeting should be brought before a plenum of the Milli Majlis.

MP Anatoliy Rafailov and MP Mushfig Mammadli were amongst the other participants of this meeting.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis