Government decision: Suspended operations should not lead to lost sickness benefit

Already in early April, the government and the Social Insurance Agency agreed that no one should lose his or her sickness benefit after 180 days if an operation is suspended due to the corona pandemic.

Now a government decision has been made on this issue.

- It is completely unreasonable for people to lose their sickness allowance because an operation or rehabilitation is postponed or canceled due to corona. Individual citizens should not incur this cost, says Social Security Minister Ardalan Shekarabi (S) to SVT News.

The Social Democrats, the Center Party, the Liberals and the Environment Party have agreed on the decision, which will also protect from insurance coverage after day 365.

The temporary exception applies retroactively from April 2 to December 31, 2020 and will cost "a couple of hundred million," according to Ardalan Shekarabi.

- It is extremely important that we ensure that people are able to maintain financial security and are not hit twice as much as corona causes operations and rehabilitation efforts to be canceled for healthcare to make priorities, he says.