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Medical Care and Sickness Benefits Convention, 1969 (No. 130) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (RATIFICATION: 1982)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government. It wishes to draw the Government's attention to the following points and to receive further information on them.

1. Part II (Medicare care), Article 10, and Part III (Sickness Benefit), Article 19 of the Convention. In reply to the Committee's previous comments concerning the scope of the two above-mentioned parts of the Convention, the Government states that it has recourse to clause (a) of Articles 10 and 19. It also states that new medical and hospital establishments have been set up in the country. The Committee takes note of this information.

The Committee also notes the difficulties encountered by the Government in supplying the statistics requested. In this connection, it wishes to refer to paragraph 67 of its General Survey of 1989 on social security protection in old age, in which it stressed the following: "... However, international comparison is not the only purpose of compiling statistical information. An efficient system for gathering statistics is an invaluable and indispensable tool providing the national authorities with access to important information on the way in which the social security scheme operates in practice, enabling them to draw on their experience in the future. As regards coverage in particular, keeping statistics in this field should help social security bodies to verify whether all of the persons covered by social security legislation are in fact protected in practice." In view of the importance of this matter, the Committee hopes that the Government will be able to overcome the difficulties encountered and that, with its next report, it will be able to provide the statistical information required by the report form under these Articles of the Convention, concerning the number of employees protected under each scheme and the total number of employees. It also requests the Government to report on all progress made in extending the social security system to the various regions of the country.

2. Part II (Medical care), Article 13. The Committee again requests the Government to provide the text of the internal rules adopted by the Governing Body of the Venezuelan Social Insurance Institute in pursuance of section 119 of the General Regulations of the Social Insurance Act.

3. Part II (Medical care), Article 16, paragraph 1. The Committee notes with interest the Government's statement that it is the established practice of the Venezuelan Social Insurance Institute to provide medical assistance throughout the contingency without exercising any administrative control as regards the duration laid down by section 127 of the General Regulations of the Social Insurance Act. It requests the Government to provide the texts of any decisions, circulars or other administrative regulations of the Venezuelan Social Insurance Institute on which this practice is based. The Committee also hopes that, when the General Regulations of the Social Insurance Act are next revised, the Government will be able to modify the content of section 127 to ensure that full effect is given to this provision of the Convention also in the law.

4. Part II (Medical care), Article 16, paragraphs 2 and 3. The Committee notes the Government's statement that it is the established practice of the Venezuelan Social Insurance Institute to continue to provide medical care where a beneficiary ceases to belong to one of the categories of persons protected when the sickness started while he still belonged to the said category. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide the texts of any decisions, circulars or other administrative regulations of the Venezuelan Social Insurance Institute on which this practice is based.

5. Part III (Sickness benefits), Articles 21 and 22 (in conjunction with Article 1(h)). The Committee notes the Government's statement that recourse is had to the provisions of Article 22 of the Convention to calculate sickness benefit. As a ceiling is fixed for the wage that is subject to contributions, the Committee hopes that it will be possible for the next report to contain statistical information enabling it to ascertain whether the amount of the sickness benefit attains the percentage prescribed by the Convention (60 per cent) for a standard beneficiary (a man with a wife and two children) whose wage is equal to that of a skilled manual male employee in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 22. Please provide, in particular, the statistical information called for under Titles I and II of Article 22 of the report form adopted by the Governing Body.

6. Part IV (Common provisions), Article 28, paragraph 2. In reply to the Committee's previous comments concerning this provision of the Convention which prescribes that part of the sickness benefit shall be paid to the dependants concerned in the event of suspension of the benefit, the Government indicates that, in practice, the Venezuelan Institute of Social Insurance does not suspend payment of the benefits in the cases listed in Article 28, paragraph 1, of the Convention. The Committee understands, therefore, that the provisions of section 144 of the General Regulations of the Social Insurance Act providing for the withdrawal or reduction of cash benefits for temporary incapacity are not applied in practice. It would be grateful if the Government would provide the texts of any decisions, circulars or other administrative regulations of the Venezuelan Social Insurance Institute that have been adopted to this end.

7. Lastly, the Committee again asks the Government to provide detailed information on the application of each Article of the Convention to public officials and employees.