The government has moved to restore additional health benefits for civil servants and their dependants, 18 months after Parliament stripped them of the entitlements.
Regulations tabled in Parliament on Thursday would reinstate the employment right of civil servants and pensioners, as well as their family members, to medical and pharmaceutical care for specific health services not covered by the General Health System (GHS).
The same additional services would be available to chronically ill patients regardless of whether they work in the public sector, as well as lower-income groups who were entitled to care at state hospitals before GHS.
If parties agree and approve the regulations, beneficiaries will receive additional health benefits including:
Limited dental services at state dental clinics—fillings, root canal treatments, tooth extractions and cleanings (GHS covers only one cleaning per year). Both active employees and pensioners, along with their family members, would pay €3 per visit for these services.
Denture placement with set fees. Beneficiaries would pay €200 for acrylic dentures for upper and lower jaws, €100 for other types of acrylic dentures for upper or lower jaws, and €24 for denture repairs.
Free medical nutritional products for people with nasogastric tubes who cannot eat by mouth, gluten-free flour for people with gluten allergies, and hypoallergenic milk for newborns.
The cost of securing nutritional products in the case of nasogastric tubes is around €500 to €600 per month and €70 per container of hypoallergenic milk for newborns, which lasts approximately two to three weeks, according to the regulations.
When Parliament decided to cancel these entitlements after approving a related DISY amendment supported by other parties, there were strong reactions from those affected, who faced substantial costs to secure these products.
The regulations also provide psychiatric institutional or mandatory care, which is already offered free to other citizens.
Test for parties ahead of elections
It will be interesting to see how parties position themselves in Parliament, as the May 2026 parliamentary elections may shift the stance they took in 2024, despite their statements in Parliament at the time about unequal treatment of citizens.
During the 2024 debate, committee members asked the Finance Ministry to inform them in writing whether the executive had any political intention to amend Health Ministry regulations to remove the right to medical and pharmaceutical care at state hospitals for all civil servants and officials.
In February 2024, the director general of the Finance Ministry said the Health Ministry had reconfirmed that medical care services provided to civil servants outside GHS are mainly limited dental services and chronic psychiatric institutional or mandatory care, which is already provided free to other citizens.
