Voluntary health insurance for migrants will remain online

The Ministry of Digital Development recognized the results of the experiment on selling voluntary health insurance policies to migrant workers through Gosuslugi as successful – now this service will be available on the portal permanently. However, although purchasing a policy is an important part of the process of registering entry into the Russian Federation for work, and the demand for labor is high, it is unlikely that this innovation in itself will significantly increase the migration flow into the country due to the risks for such workers and the slowdown in migration registration reform.

It is proposed to secure the opportunity for foreign workers to apply for a voluntary health insurance policy remotely through the government services portal on a permanent basis, follows from the draft government resolution prepared by the department and posted on the regulation.gov.ru portal. The document refers to the instructions of two relevant deputy prime ministers – Alexei Overchuk and Tatyana Golikova. A pilot project for the “electronic” registration of VHI for labor migrants entering the Russian Federation to work was launched by the Ministry of Digital Development in February 2023. According to Russian legislation, a voluntary health insurance policy must be purchased by employees coming from abroad to work under a patent without a visa. Those for whom this is mandatory include citizens of the EAEU countries, the main source of labor migration to Russia.

Note that, despite the high demand for labor in the Russian Federation, the total number of foreigners working in Russia in 2023 decreased compared to 2022 and hardly exceeded 3.5 million people (simultaneously staying in the country). Before the pandemic, this figure was 4.5 million people (for more details, see Kommersant on February 1). The number of patents issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs increased in 2023, but slightly, to 2.3 million, by 3.6% compared to the 2022 minimum. The main demand for foreign workers in the Russian economy comes from construction, retail trade, the service sector and the agro-industrial complex.

Policies for migrants are now provided by all major players in the insurance market, such as RESO-Garantiya, Ingosstrakh, and Sogaz-Med. On average, the cost of an annual policy is several thousand rubles; it covers both medical and dental services. The pilot project, which was being prepared in the summer of 2022, according to the government decree, was supposed to work out “electronic interaction between insurance organizations, financial platform operators and policyholders” for the purchase of voluntary health insurance. To use this service, the migrant had to have a confirmed entry on State Services. In general, the portal has become available to foreigners since 2022.

As the Ministry of Digital Development indicates in the explanatory note to the current draft resolution, “an analysis of law enforcement practice has shown the demand for this service among foreign citizens.” Its further implementation, as the department points out, will not require additional budget expenditures – the necessary funds will be allocated as part of the Digital Economy program.

However, although purchasing a voluntary health insurance policy is a prerequisite for legal work in the Russian Federation under a patent, the opportunity to do this through Gosuslugi is unlikely to significantly increase the desire of foreign workers to work in Russia. The main factors that make the Russian Federation a less attractive place for labor migration are the risks of a sudden reduction in earnings due to currency fluctuations (see Kommersant on February 1). The government continues to postpone larger changes in the organization of entry of foreigners – for example, the reform of reorganizing migration registration planned back in 2022 has not yet been implemented (see Kommersant of November 28, 2022).

Anastasia Manuilova