Health insurance - Improves the competitiveness of companies and also represents value to employees

An important element of prevention is that if health deterioration occurs, we try to restore it as soon as possible and prevent the situation from getting worse. As the Covid-19 epidemic has put public health in a difficult position, patients may be able to receive adequate care more slowly than before, which in some cases may lead to even longer periods of sick leave.

The loss of an employee due to illness has several additional costs, especially if this period is prolonged. The tax and contributory absence pay for the first 15 days of sick leave, overtime, and the cost of hiring another colleague in the event of a longer absence are the burden of the employer. Absence due to illness can be significantly shortened if the employer provides accessible, quality health care and regular screening to its employees.

According to the National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary (Hungarian acronym: NEAK)  2019 Statistical Yearbook, paying for sick leave each year is costly not only for the state, but for employers as well. In 2018, the amount disbursed for payment reached 116 billion HUF, then in 2019 it increased further and exceeded 132 billion HUF. The share of the employer's contribution within sickness expenditures was 26.2% in 2018, which cost companies more than 30 billion HUF, and then this amount increased further in 2019, reaching 34 billion HUF.

The number of sick pay days in Hungary has been steadily increasing since 2013, which also affects the competitiveness of Hungarian companies. According to the data of the Hungarian Central Statistics Office (CSO), the number of sick days in Hungary has been steadily increasing since 2013, which not only increases health insurance expenditures, but also affects the competitiveness of Hungarian companies, as they are forced to replace the lost workforce with overtime or redeployment.

From the data above, it is clear that this is not a negligible problem. The illnesses that caused most of the time spent on sick pay for employees could be largely prevented. According to the sick pay data, almost 25% of the cases were due to diseases of the musculoskeletal system, almost 10% diseases of the respiratory system, 13% infectious diseases, and 8.4% diseases of the digestive system.