Compensation for inflation
In Belgium, many wages, pensions, property rental costs, insurance premiums, unemployment benefits, health insurance payments, etc. are by law tied to the Health Index. Some wages and benefits are adapted to the Index after a rise of the Index above a certain threshold. Other adjustments, like house rent or insurance premiums, are carried through on a yearly basis. Thus, the income of the average Belgian closely tracks overall inflation - which makes it different from the rest of the eurozone.
Government cabinets can decide to "jump" the index, i.e. knowingly skip the automatic adaptation of all wages and benefits tied to the index. This is a political decision that keeps these wages and benefits on the then-current level, in order to reduce the government's budget deficit. The Wilfried Martens government in the 1980s did three such "index jumps", and the Michel I Government did one as well in 2015.
Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens was a Flemish Belgian politician. He was born in Sleidinge. During his political career, Martens served as the Prime Minister of Belgium from 3 April 1979 to 6 April 1981 and 17 December 1981 to 7 March 1992.
The Michel I Government was the Federal Government of Belgium formed following the 2014 Belgian government formation and sworn in on 11 October 2014. The administration is a centre-right coalition of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V), the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats and the Reformist Movement (MR). The prime minister is Charles Michel. The government had an agenda of socio-economic reforms, especially through austerity measures, with its priorities being improving Belgium's economic competitiveness and reducing unemployment. It fell in December 2018 over the Global Compact for Migration.
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Medibank Private Limited is a national private health insurer based in Australia. It is Australia's second largest health insurance provider behind Bupa with 3.8 million members, 29.1% of the market, under two brands. Previously an Australian government business enterprise, it was privatised in 2014 by the Abbott Government and now operates as a publicly listed company on the ASX.
The Equal Treatment in Goods and Services Directive 2004 of 13 December 2004 is a directive which prohibits both direct and indirect sexual discrimination in the provision of goods and services in the European Union.
Health insurance in the United States is any program that helps pay for medical expenses, whether through privately purchased insurance, social insurance, or a social welfare program funded by the government. Synonyms for this usage include "health coverage", "health care coverage", and "health benefits". In a more technical sense, the term "health insurance "is used to describe any form of insurance providing protection against the costs of medical services. This usage includes private insurance and social insurance programs such as Medicare, which pools resources and spreads the financial risk associated with major medical expenses across the entire population to protect everyone, as well as social welfare programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which both provide assistance to people who cannot afford health coverage.
This page lists details of the consumer price index by country
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The National Consumer Price Index measures the price inflation of key consumer goods for Swiss private households. The average of the population is used as a reference to obtain a "truthful" value. The CPI measures the price trend based on a basket of commodities containing about 1050 goods and services. These are weighted according to their share of the household budget.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) established the health insurance rate review program in order to protect consumers from unreasonable rate increases. Through this program, proposed premium increases in the small group and individual markets that are above a threshold amount are reviewed by states or the federal government to determine whether the increases are reasonable.
