What has Senate Committee on Social Policy been up to this year

On the eve of the new year, head of the Council of the Federation Committee for Social Policy Valery Ryazansky spoke about the most significant, in his view, laws that were initiated or approved by lawmakers in the outgoing year.

"The Federation Council is consistently addressing the issue of transferring the procurement of medicines for patients with orphan diseases to the federal level," Ryazansky said. These are medicines intended for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of rare diseases or conditions that pose a serious threat to human health or life. This year, centralized purchasing of five orphan drugs was introduced. For the first time, necessary medicines totaling 10.8 billion rubles were provided to 1291 patients, of whom more than 1000 are minors. "Given the positive socio-economic effect of the federal law, a bill to transfer two more orphan diseases to the federal level next year was introduced into the State Duma and has already been passed through three readings," Ryazansky said. For these purposes, the federal budget for the next year and the 2021-2022 planning period provides about 2 billion rubles annually. "It's not just about financing, but also about a single methodology, about a single list and procedures for confirming disease. More than three thousand people have received medication on a regular basis this year, not by court decision, or by the results of exhausting, scandalous legal procedures," the senator said.

He also commented on several other laws, in particular on raising the minimum wage: "The law was adopted by the State Duma. The minimum wage will amount to 12 thousand 130 rubles from the new year. Thus, we have fulfilled all the agreements that were reached two years ago, in terms of equalizing the minimum wage and the minimum subsistence level."

In addition, according to Ryazansky, the law on foreign students was adopted: "We give them the right to work in our institutions and enterprises during their studies. This is a fundamental law, as foreign students will be able to get a foothold in our enterprises as specialists in the future. This is a form of soft power that we have always been proud of."

In addition, the senator told about the gradual transition from paper employment record books to electronic ones: "Digitalization should preserve all personal data, but at the same time avoid situations when lost paper employment record books caused problems - people lost their retirement records, service records. As chairman of the Union of Pensioners, I often dealt with these kinds of problems. A paper employment record book has certain emotional advantages, such as inscriptions, incentives and promotions. But on the other hand, paper documents always have risks of loss, or incorrect preparation by the personnel services. Electronic documents are spared these problems."

Meanwhile, the head of the Council of the Federation Committee for Social Policy drew attention to the federal law, which "gives parents the right to insurance benefits that can be received in the case of industry incidents. Up to now, parents have had no right to receive insurance benefits on an equal basis with others family members. Now it’s possible."

On the matter of family and children,a law was enacted to expand the use of maternity capital for construction, mortgage, or house-buying. "The Federal law makes it possible to receive childcare benefit regardless of the place of residence. We know about this problem: when you move to another region, that's a lot of running to get this benefit," Ryazansky said, drawing attention to the issue of increasing the possibility of receiving benefits in the amount equivalent to twice the minimum wage for children under 3 years of age