Financial Committee

Despite a large number of people enjoying the service of National Health Insurance scheme Aasandha, there are several problems associated with the scheme.

Problems relating to how Aasandha was created; the fact that money is spent without any rules or limits on a scheme for which no budget was assigned; the fact that Aasandha was created outside the limits of the law - these are a few of the concerns raised by the members of Financial Committee during their debate today.

If Rf 3 million is spent per day from the government funds on Aasandha, this is a larger amount than the annual sum assigned for it in the budget. According to NSPA this will leave the government with a deficit of Rf 200 million.

Moreover, this means that about 150,000 people use the Aasandha to obtain healthcare services every month. Is this really the cost of healthcare? Or does this mean that healthcare services are overpriced?

None of the Financial Committee members, even though they are often driven by political motives, wish to end scheme under which healthcare is free for all Maldivian citizens. They have therefore geared up to make the necessary amendments before the Aasandha Company is bankrupt and the government treasury loses control of the situation.

“From a legal point of view, the current agreement between the government and Aasandha Company is invalid. An agreement cannot be made to use a budget which has not been approved by the Parliament. Ministry of Finance does not have the authority to do that. So this has been done against the rules and regulations,” Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary Group Nolhivaram MP Mohamed Nasheed (Colonel) said.

He further said that if this case is filed to court, they will order an immediate end to the provision of Aasandha service. The reason, according to Nasheed, is that the agreement between the government and Aasandha Company is against the Financial Act.

MDP Parliamentary Group Kulhudhuffushi Uthuru MP Abdul Gafoor Moosa (Gapo) said that as soon as Aasandha was introduced, people rushed to obtain healthcare services from ADK Hospital. He suspects the high priced, low quality services - as well as corruption issues -associated with IGM Hospital to be the reason behind this.

“This is the condition of the hospital operated by machinery and premises provided by the government. People won’t go there even if we want them to. Corruption is a big problem at IGMH. The low quality and high price of services are a result of this. People don’t go there because the services are no good,” Gapo said.

He said that regardless of how much money the government spends on strengthening the health sector, it would be impossible to resolve the problems. He accused the people responsible for strengthening the health sector of being corrupt.

“Even medicine is imported via companies owned by employees at Ministry of Health. The machinery is also imported by them. So unless the entire system is interfered with and completely cleansed, these problems will not be resolved,” Gapo said.

Bilaydhoo MP Ahmed Hamza said that people want services as good as those provided in Clinics, but this is not possible via Aasandha. The government budget cannot afford such high-cost services.

Chairperson of Financial Committee and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Nazim said that Aasandha is not built on a steady foundation. He said that 1400 people who have signed up for private insurance as members of independent commission are also entitled to Aasandha, which means the government loses out in both ways. Two clinics have disrupted providing Aasandha services, after members of Financial Committee suspected that corruption was involved in including these two clinics in Aasandha. The two clinics are operated by the same administration.

The Financial Committee has requested the hospitals to provide statistics of to those who obtain Aasandha services; including the number of people who obtain this service daily, the price of tests and medicine bought by them.