N-VA after audit of long-term sick leave: “Figures defy all imagination”

The N-VA has reacted with shock to a leaked study by Belgium’s National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV/INAMI) on long-term incapacity for work. A sample audit by inspectors found that health insurance funds had been too generous in granting benefits: more than half of the long-term sick individuals examined were in fact capable of working.

Chamber group leader Axel Ronse described the figures as “stomach-turning.” “The fact that nearly 60% of new disability cases are not actually unfit for work defies all imagination,” he said. “It is clear that the current control system is failing. It is high time to remove advisory doctors from the health insurance funds. Our Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. social security system is valuable—its resources must be reserved for those who truly need them.”

Conflict of interest among advisory doctors

For MP Frieda Gijbels, part of the problem lies with the advisory doctors. They currently work within the health insurance funds while also being responsible for assessing the members of those same organisations.

“They are caught between a rock and a hard place,” Gijbels said. “They work for the fund, yet must also assess its own members. It’s only logical that this doesn’t work. Health insurance funds are extremely wary of losing members. That’s a commercial logic, which has no place in a system that is supposed to distribute public resources fairly.”

The N-VA is therefore calling for advisory doctors to be separated from the health insurance funds.

A fundamental reform is needed

The N-VA has long advocated removing the role of public payer from the health insurance funds. “We are the only country where politically affiliated health insurance funds compete with each other. We should objectively examine which system is the most efficient and adopt it. As policymakers, we have a duty to ensure that public funds are spent as effectively as possible.”

Previous written questions by Axel Ronse also revealed that health insurance funds have significantly more long-term sick members than the Auxiliary Fund. While 7% of the Auxiliary Fund’s members are unable to work for more than a year, that figure rises to no less than 15% at Solidaris.