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BY RHOMA TOMLINSON, Observer writer editorial@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, August 31, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Government is moving to have holders of health insurance policies use their plans to cover the cost of treatments at public hospitals and clinics.
This, according to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, will help his administration to recover some of the revenue lost from the abolition of user fees at the public health facilities.
Speaking at a ceremony to open a new medical centre at the Hargreaves Memorial Hospital in Mandeville on Thursday, the prime minister said Health Minister Rudyard Spencer was working on a "new arrangement", to ensure that insurance companies pay Government for those treatments received by their policyholders which are covered by the insurance.
"There are persons who access the public institutions who have health insurance, but because there is no
requirement for them to pay, the card is never presented. The health insurance is never brought to the table. So the taxpayers are actually paying the cost for areas that ought to be covered by health insurance companies, because these persons are paying health insurance. where health insurance exists, government will be able to recover from the health insurers, whatever would have been the appropriate public cost," Golding said.
Responding to criticisms that those who can afford to pay should pay for public health care, Golding said Government has never been able to determine fully who can afford to pay and how much.
He said research done a few years ago showed that the majority of Jamaicans cannot afford to pay for health care, and "if they're coerced into paying, they do so at great sacrifice.in order to meet an expenditure they cannot afford to deprive themselves of".
He said his Government knew that the abolition of user fees would be an additional burden, but maintained that the programme "has to be sustained".
He said though Government cannot now improve facilities at local clinics given the economic constraints, it is moving in that direction, to offset the burden on the island's public hospitals.
Additionally, he said the health minister is currently holding discussions with private health facilities with a view to strengthening the existing relationship between these institutions and the Government, "because in many instances they have underutilised facilities and in the Government we have over-stretched facilities".
Health Minister Spencer, who also spoke at the function, said plans to move the Mandeville Regional Hospital up to a Type A facility from its current Type B status, have had to be shelved, because of the recession. However, he said some $89 million has been set aside to develop the hospital's Block J, and that Government is currently accepting tenders.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...EALTH_CARE.asp
Monday, August 31, 2009
MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Government is moving to have holders of health insurance policies use their plans to cover the cost of treatments at public hospitals and clinics.
This, according to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, will help his administration to recover some of the revenue lost from the abolition of user fees at the public health facilities.
Speaking at a ceremony to open a new medical centre at the Hargreaves Memorial Hospital in Mandeville on Thursday, the prime minister said Health Minister Rudyard Spencer was working on a "new arrangement", to ensure that insurance companies pay Government for those treatments received by their policyholders which are covered by the insurance.
"There are persons who access the public institutions who have health insurance, but because there is no
requirement for them to pay, the card is never presented. The health insurance is never brought to the table. So the taxpayers are actually paying the cost for areas that ought to be covered by health insurance companies, because these persons are paying health insurance. where health insurance exists, government will be able to recover from the health insurers, whatever would have been the appropriate public cost," Golding said.
Responding to criticisms that those who can afford to pay should pay for public health care, Golding said Government has never been able to determine fully who can afford to pay and how much.
He said research done a few years ago showed that the majority of Jamaicans cannot afford to pay for health care, and "if they're coerced into paying, they do so at great sacrifice.in order to meet an expenditure they cannot afford to deprive themselves of".
He said his Government knew that the abolition of user fees would be an additional burden, but maintained that the programme "has to be sustained".
He said though Government cannot now improve facilities at local clinics given the economic constraints, it is moving in that direction, to offset the burden on the island's public hospitals.
Additionally, he said the health minister is currently holding discussions with private health facilities with a view to strengthening the existing relationship between these institutions and the Government, "because in many instances they have underutilised facilities and in the Government we have over-stretched facilities".
Health Minister Spencer, who also spoke at the function, said plans to move the Mandeville Regional Hospital up to a Type A facility from its current Type B status, have had to be shelved, because of the recession. However, he said some $89 million has been set aside to develop the hospital's Block J, and that Government is currently accepting tenders.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...EALTH_CARE.asp
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