Bill on Insurance Premium for Farmers Approved by Poland Cabinet

Poland's cabinet approved a draft bill regulating the payment system of health insurance premiums for farmers and their household members. It says that for each conversion hectare of arable land on a given farm, the health insurance premium will be PLN 1 monthly.

This means that the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS) will pay the health insurance premium for the farmers and their family members on farms which have an area of less than 6 hectares of conversion arable land. For an area of more than 6 hectares of conversion arable land, the farmer will pay the health insurance premiums.

The proposed solutions shall apply from 1st January to 31st December 2012 and are temporary in nature. This is because the final changes calls for the reconstruction of the tax system for farmers who do not operate in special branches of agricultural production.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the changes to the rules of payment of health insurance for farmers, which is a result from a ruling of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal issued in October 2010, which questioned the public funding of health premiums for farmers, regardless of their financial status.

Source: Medindia