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Altogether, four proposals concerning this provision were received ahead of the draft legislation’s second reading. Their authors included Ombudsman Juris Jansons, MP Romualds Razuks (Unity), the Harmony faction in Saeima and MP Andrejs Klementjevs (Harmony).

All four proposals were largely similar, but MP Razuks proposed to stipulate that public health care funding is gradually increased and cannot be reduced in size from the previous year.

Razuks argued that Latvia is not safeguarded from possible new crisis and that such provision might help secure a sufficient health budget in such cases. The MP noted that Lithuania has already adopted a similar provision.

Valdis Keris, the leader of the Latvian Trade Union of Health and Social Care Employees (LVSADA), spoke in support of Razuks’ proposal and thanked all those lawmakers who backed the union’s position on this issue, which in Keris’ words had been the main reason for drafting the law.

Niks Sakss, director of the Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Policy Department, warned that although such a provision can be written in the law, it would become meaningless in case of a crisis. “When the crisis strikes, the provision will not work,” Sakss said.

Today, the Saeima Social and Labor Affairs Committee started reviewing the proposals submitted for the second reading of the health care financing bill.