Response to interpellation 2022/23:166 on the deductible in the health insurance
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M argues that the care deduction functions as a deductible to counteract high short-term sick leave. The Government has replaced the Care Inquiry with a working group in the Government Offices to analyze expediency, distribution effects, and consequences. The working group shall specifically investigate the conditions for improving the terms for occupational groups that cannot work from home. S considers that the care deduction hits hardest those workers who ensure that society functions 1. S wants to abolish the unfair care deduction through a billion-kronor investment to increase solidarity 1. S argues that it was unfortunate to shut down the Care Inquiry 1.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Anna Tenje (M)
Madam Speaker! If it was I who stepped out of line in the previous interpellation debate, I ask for your most sincere apologies.
So, regarding this interpellation. Åsa Eriksson has asked me if I intend to take measures to make the quarantine deduction fairer and what measures those would be in that case.
The quarantine deduction fulfills an important function as a deductible to counteract unjustifiably high short-term sick leave. During the extraordinary situation that the covid-19 pandemic entailed, however, deviations were made from the principle of a deductible in the sickness insurance by the state temporarily paying out compensation for the quarantine deduction to facilitate for individuals to stay home during illness. It was a justified measure then. Under normal conditions, however, the issue needs to be carefully considered. The previous government appointed the Quarantine Inquiry with the aim of reviewing the quarantine deduction.
It is important to review the sick pay deduction. The Government has made the assessment that the ongoing review of the sick pay deduction should be changed and clarified, as well as linked more closely to the Government Offices' other work. The sick pay investigation has therefore been replaced by a working group in the Government Offices.
The working group shall analyze the expediency, distribution effects, and other consequences of the quarantine deduction. The working group shall specifically analyze the conditions for changing the quarantine deduction to improve the conditions for specific professional groups who are particularly exposed to close human contact in their professional roles and who find it difficult to work from home, for example certain employees within healthcare, school, and care, and develop a model for this. If it is deemed justified, the working group shall propose other changes to the quarantine deduction. The working group shall report its work no later than 15 December 2023.
The Riksdag parties are given insight into the ongoing work through a parliamentarially composed reference group which is established to support the working group's work. I look forward to the working group's work and our continued political discussions on the design of the care deduction.
Åsa Eriksson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister! It is nice to see you here again.
The government's handling of the waiting period issue over the last few months has undeniably raised a number of questions. The government's party, Moderaterna, campaigned on reintroducing the waiting period in the health insurance and has opened up for an additional waiting day.
As late as December 13 last year, the Minister stood here in the chamber, in the same rostrum as today, and spoke about the Karen Inquiry: "It is very important that the inquiry that we have mentioned here several times continues. We must not anticipate it. It will present its report next autumn, in September 2023, and it would be wrong for both of us to anticipate what that inquiry will come to."
So that is how it sounded, two months ago. Now we all know what happened. On January 26, the Government decided to shut down the Karen Investigation, and the Minister has, as we have heard, announced that the Government will instead appoint its own internal working group.
Madam Speaker! The government has also backed down from introducing an additional quarantine day and from reintroducing absolute time limits in the sickness insurance. One wonders who is actually in charge and whose priorities carry the most weight. It is not the care for the sick and those affected by the unjust quarantine deduction, in any case, that we can note.
Madam Speaker! We Social Democrats are proud of all the changes we made during our eight years in government to improve the health insurance. But we are really not satisfied. We want to strengthen the insurance and make it more solidary, fair, and equal.
The care deduction hits hardest against all those workers who go to work every day and ensure that society functions. We went to the election on a promise to abolish the unfair care deduction, and therefore we are making a billion-kronor investment in our budget proposal to show that we mean business with that promise. For us Social Democrats, this is about justice and about solidarity.
Madam Speaker! I consider it very unfortunate that the Karen Investigation was discontinued, as it had an important mandate with the aim of seeing how loss of income during illness could be borne in a more solidary and distribution-politically accurate way, as well as counteracting the risks of sickness absence, which is a major problem on the Swedish labor market.
The Minister says in his answer, Madam Speaker, that it is important to review the care deduction - good! The Minister also says that the working group shall analyze the purposefulness, the distribution effects, and other consequences. Then my question is, Madam Speaker: Why was the original investigation, which was already underway and was to deliver answers on among other things this in September, not allowed to continue? The Minister's working group is not started, as far as I know, and is to provide its answer first in the middle of December. It feels counterintuitive, if the purpose really is to make the care deduction more fair as soon as possible.
Madam Speaker! A working group in the Government Offices is much cheaper than an inquiry. I wonder if the Minister can agree that the Government Offices' inquiry budget is the actual reason why the Karen Inquiry was not allowed to continue its work. And where can we find the directives for the government's internal working group?
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.