Praxis launched an Initiative for Legislative Review of the Article 6, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure for Exercising Right from Obligatory Health Insurance before the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia. The Initiative points to the fact that the aforementioned provision of the Rules of Procedure is contrary to the Law on Health Insurance.

Namely, the Article 22 of the Law on Health Insurance explicitly states that persons of Roma ethnicity who due to their traditional way of life, do not have permanent/temporary residence, may be beneficiaries of health care. There is no doubt that the legislator intended to ensure access of this category of persons to health care. This regulation of the Law may also, without a doubt, be applied to Roma IDPs who do not have permanent/ temporary residence.

On the other hand, Article 6 of the Rules of Procedure, however, derogates the application of this legal rule by stating that the insured must provide a personal statement that he/she is a person of Roma ethnicity, as well as his/her registration of temporary residence. In this way, persons who do not have their residence registered, for instance due to the fact that they live in an illegal Roma settlement - which is often the case with Roma IDPs - are actually deprived of the rights from health insurance, and exercise of the legal right to using health care services.

In its reply dated 18th March 2010, Constitutional Court informed Praxis that the aforementioned Rules of Procedure were no longer in force as of 10th March 2010 on the grounds of provision of Article 152 of the new Rules of Procedure for Exercising Right from Obligatory Health Insurance, adopted by the Administrative Board of the Republic Institute for Health Insurance on 11th December 2009. On that occasion, the Constitutional Court invited Praxis to inform them whether the Initiative was still in force and whether Praxis would change it in accordance with changed circumstances.

Therefore, Praxis changed the Initiative (Submission) in accordance with the new Rules of Procedure which, in fact, took over the same solution in relation to disputable Article 6, but it is mentioned in the new Rules of Procedure in Article 7.

Download (Serbian only): Initiative for Legislative Review of the Article 6, Paragraph 11 of the Rules of Procedure for Exercising Right from Obligatory Health Insurance

Download (Serbian only): Rules of Procedure

Download: Submission