LEGAL NATURE OF VOLUNTARY HEALTH INSURANCE AGREEMENT IN CASE OF ILLNESS

Abstract

The article, based on the analysis of scientific views and norms of the current legislation of Ukraine, which regulate contractual relations in the field of insurance, defines the concept, legal nature of the contract of voluntary health insurance in case of illness and its place in the system of civil law contracts. The legal characterization of the contractual structure of the voluntary health insurance contract in case of illness was carried out, the rights and obligations of its parties, the procedure for its conclusion, execution and termination, restrictions of persons who cannot be a party to the contract, also the legal consequences of violating the terms of the contract were determined. There is an urgent need to update regulatory and legal acts in the sphere of current legislation of Ukraine, which regulates health insurance relations in case of illness. Arguments are presented regarding the establishment in regulatory and legal acts of the obligation of a health insurance contract in case of illness for some unprotected segments of the population, in connection with the occasion that took place and are taking place in Ukraine, namely the worldwide pandemic SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus disease – COVID-19), martial law and the consequences of war. The contract of voluntary health insurance in case of illness is differentiated from the contract of medical insurance (continuous health insurance) taking into account the norms of the current legislation of Ukraine and law enforcement practice. The contract of voluntary health insurance in case of illness is proposed to be understood as a contract under which voluntarily and by agreement one party (the insurer), which is a legal entity specially created to carry out insurance activities and has received a license to carry out insurance activities in accordance with the established procedure, undertakes, in the event of the occurrence of a certain event (insurance event) related to life, health and work capacity, to pay the second party (the insured) or another person specified in the contract, a sum of money (insurance payment), and the insured undertakes pay insurance payments and fulfil other terms of the contract. Attention is focused on the fact that identifying the legal nature of the contract and its legal features has important theoretical and practical significance, because it contributes to determining the relationship between the contract and the obligation, establishing the place of the contract in the system of contract law. It is substantiated that from the point of view of the general characteristics of civil legal obligations, voluntary health insurance in case of illness belongs to bilateral, mutual, payment, fixed-term, dispositive- real, aleatory (risky) contracts.