Deputies approved a financial contribution for vaccinations for the elderly – SME.sk

BRATISLAVA People over the age of 60 will be entitled to a financial contribution for vaccinations. They will receive it in cash and they will be able to use it as they wish.

The Plenum of the National Council on Thursday approved an amendment to the Act on Certain Extraordinary Measures in the Financial Area in Relation to the Spread of the Disease Covid-19.

The aim of the law proposed by the Minister of Finance Igor Matovic, is the support of vaccination in the risk group of the population.

97 out of 138 deputies present voted in favor of the law. Members supported the proposal OĽANO, We are a family, SaS in addition to four, but also non-attached deputies operating in the Voice.

Deputies Jozef Šimko, Jana Žitňanská, Alexandra Pivková, Miriam Šuteková, Ján Krošlák and Juraj Šeliga.

During the vote, Smer abstained, ĽSNS was against, as well as deputies from the LSN.

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Who is entitled to the contribution

Natural persons with permanent or temporary residence in Slovakia who reach the age of 60 by the end of 2021 and who meet other conditions related to vaccination are entitled to the allowance.

They must be vaccinated with a third booster dose by 31 December vaccines against Covid-19 or at least to register and complete this vaccination by 15 January 2022. This category of citizens will be granted 300 euros.

Those who have already been vaccinated with three doses of the vaccine will also receive three hundred euros.

The € 200 allowance will be awarded to those who have been vaccinated or vaccinated with a second dose between 30 June and the end of this year, or who have registered for a second dose of the vaccine and have completed it by 15 January next year.

Those seniors who received or will receive the first dose of the vaccine or register in the waiting room between 25 November and 31 December 2021 are also entitled to the amount of EUR 200 and will complete this vaccination by 15 January 2022.

It will also be given to Slovaks over the age of 60 who complete the vaccine dose by the end of the year as part of a single-dose schedule, and at the same time undergo a booster dose by March 1, 2022.

The government can extend the deadlines

Financial assistance will be paid to seniors on the basis of data from the National Center for Health Information (NCZI). The government will be able to extend the deadlines for registrations or for completing the vaccination itself by a regulation, but by a maximum of eight weeks.

Originally, Matovič proposed to give seniors a vaccination voucher worth 500 euros, which seniors or their relatives could exchange for using various services in the gastronomy sector or the recreational area.

With this financial measure totaling EUR 500 million, he also wanted to help the operations most affected by the pandemic. However, the original proposal did not have the support of coalition partners, so the current wording of the law is a common compromise.

The amendments to the Directive did not pass

Members of the Direction Ján Richter a Robert Fico tried to modify the proposal with amendments, but they did not pass.

Richter’s proposal concerned one-off financial assistance for seniors, which was to be provided to any natural person who had reached the age of at least 60 by the end of this year and has a permanent or temporary residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic. The aid was intended to mitigate the effects of rising prices in 2022.

The aim of Fico’s proposal was to create the conditions for the financial evaluation of health professionals who are at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19. At the same time, it should have been a motivation for the return of those workers who left their jobs prematurely or found a job abroad or in other areas during the last year and this year.

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