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Here you can see the full content of the letter:
To the President of Georgia Mr. Mikheil Saakashvili
Mr. President,
I would like to inform you that on 30 November 2011, constitutionally and according to regalement of Parliament, Georgian Trade Unions Confederation addressed the Parliament of Georgia with the legislation initiative that had been prepared by the support of Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Georgia. This initiative concerns the amendments and changes to the law on High Education and considers free medical insurance for the students of accredited higher educational institutions of Georgia. The Constitution of Georgia guarantees the right of all citizens to health insurance, as well as the right accessible medical aid. According to the conditions set by law, free medical aid should be provided. It’s meaningful that in the preamble of the same constitution is declared the strong will of citizens to establish socially legal state. According to the article 3(3) and subparagraph “b” of Georgian law on “High Education”, higher educational institutions are obliged to support the improvement of social conditions for students to insure the fulfillment of the aims of high education. In the 43 Article of the same law, which regulates the rights of the students, it’s mentioned that student has a right to have different kinds of benefits. However, there is no social benefit for students in Georgia either from state or University. The above said norms remain only as declarative norms and don’t give any benefits to students in practice. Hence, we consider that several amendments should be made to the article 43 of the law and the right for free medical insurance should be defined as a core rights for students. According to official data, there are approximately 140 thousand students in Georgia, their minimal fee for studying is 1800 GEL. For that reason, there shouldn’t be any difficulty for the administrations of higher educational institutions to provide annually 100 GEL from this amount for the insurance of the students
In the process of developing the bill, GTUC had negotiations with the beneficiaries- students, also with the insurance companies and the experts working in this field. The above said parts of the society, for the reason of their health problems, are considered as a risk-group. Considering the big number of the students, it’s possible to prepare a good package of insurance for minimal price. It’s very important that the students from state universities, self-governing bodies of students and the number of youth organizations are involved in the process of collecting signatures for the initiative. We think that adoption of the bill by the Parliament will support social protection of the students and develop insurance culture among students. Mr. President, In spite of the fact that we have different ideological positions, we think that our initiative serves the interests of the youth and generally, it’s vital for developing our country. GTUC has submitted many important initiatives to the Parliament, but with the violation of its own regalement and Georgian legislation, they are ignored by the High Representative body of the country up to date. We ask you, as a guarantor of Constitution of Georgia, to support our legislative initiative on providing every student with free health insurance. Irakli Petriashvli The Chairman of GTUC Board |
The chairman of the board of GTUC, Mr. Irakli Petriashvili addressed the President of Georgia, Mr. Mikheil Saakashvili with a special letter. 
