At Tuesday’s sitting, the Riigikogu supported the proposal from the Chancellor of Justice to bring clause 5 (2)5) of the Health Insurance Act into conformity with the Constitution. It regulates the health insurance cover of persons who earn income on the basis of a contract under the law of obligations.

According to the analysis of the Chancellor of Justice, a person with a contract under the law of obligations remains without health insurance cover if several customers pay the social tax for him or her to the state but none of them does so to the extent of the minimum social tax obligation which is 106 euro per month this year.

“If a person works, for example, under contracts for services and fulfils the requirement by way of contracting to several customers who all pay 106 euro in total for him or her, the person remains without health insurance. This means that, although the tax has been paid for the person to the extent of the required amount, he or she does not get insurance cover. This is only because the Health Insurance Act does not allow for adding up the amounts of social tax paid for a person,“ the Chancellor of Justice Indrek Teder said.

In the opinion of the Chancellor of Justice, this brings about different treatment of people, and the relevant provision of the Health Insurance Act is not in conformity with § 12 of the Constitution.

73 members of the Riigikogu supported the proposal No. 30 from the Chancellor of Justice to bring clause 5 (2)5) of the Health Insurance Act into conformity with the Constitution. With that, the Riigikogu assigned the Social Affairs Committee with the task of initiating a relevant legislative amendment.

The Riigikogu passed the Act the Ratification of the Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (711 SE), initiated by the Government. The Protocol is a multilateral environment agreement which aims to contribute to the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms, with a special emphasis on the safe transboundary movement of such LMOs.

The result of voting: 64 votes in favour and one abstention.

The Riigikogu concluded the second reading of the Bill on Amendments to the Law of Ship Flag and Registers of Ships Act, the Land Register Act and the Marital Property Register Act (708 SE), initiated by the Government.

The Bill is connected with the Act on Amendments to the Courts Act and Other Associated Acts, passed by the Riigikogu on 11 June 2014, which, among other things, transfers the maintenance of the ship registry from the registration departments of courts to the registry department of Tartu County Court. The ship registry is a state register which is comprised of the ship register and the register of ships under construction.

The verbatim record of the sitting (in Estonian) 

The Riigikogu Press Service