Health insurance: Elected officials protect themselves against transparency in their mandates

If elected officials sit or have a paid mandate within health insurance, it is known; the law requires them to declare their connections of interest. On the other hand, how much they touch, motus and closed mouth. National Council member Lorenzo Quadri (Lega/TI) presented a parliamentary initiative in September asking that elected officials publish their salaries.

First stage of the processing of its text: the Commission for Political Institutions of the National Council. This communicated on Friday and is placed with 13 votes against 9 in opposition to the idea of ​​Ticino, who sits with the UDC group. “It is arbitrary to only target the representatives of the health insurance funds, to the exclusion of other mandates in the health area or representatives of companies that receive subsidies from the Confederation”, the majority of elected representatives believe.

Lorenzo Quadri had explained on his own initiative that no, his choice was not arbitrary. “A special treatment is justified for this type of mandate, insofar as the health insurance funds, unlike other companies with the basic insurance, offer statutory insurance”, he said.

Not enough to convince his colleagues, who add “that there are already transparency rules that oblige all parliamentarians to declare their aid activities and specify whether these activities are remunerated or not.”

Note that in early December, another submission of this type was made in Parliament by Liza Mazzone (Green/GE), this time. Its text aims to ensure that elected officials are required to declare the amounts of all their paid mandates; but not the exact amount, but ranges of income. It has not yet been dealt with by the commissions.