The impasse between private doctors and health institutions on one hand and medical aid societies on the other is cause for concern and needs urgent intervention if the public is not going to be cheated of their money.
NEWSDAY COMMENT
As reported yesterday, private doctors and health institutions have warned that from July 1, they will not be accepting medical aid as payment and will instead demand cash, something that will leave many Zimbabweans in a lurch.
People invest in an insurance scheme, which medical aid is part of, with the hope that during a rainy day, they may cash in without having to lose their cash and if this stalemate is not resolved soon, many Zimbabweans are staring at the reality of their savings going to waste.
We understand the doctors’ frustrations that they are forced to pay tax on revenue they have not received due to failure by medical aid societies to remit payments and this is choking their operations, but we feel the idea of issuing ultimatums is very unhelpful and should be done away with.
What the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZiMA) should start by doing is naming and shaming the medical aid providers that are not remitting funds and hopefully this would work to convince people not to do business with them and instead move to the ones that are more honest.
This blanket ultimatum means even medical aid societies that have religiously remitted to the doctors will also be affected and that is unfair.
ZiMA have chosen not to name the offending medical aid societies, but this is a disservice to the public, as people pay their contributions in the hope that when the time comes, the insurers will faithfully pass on the money.
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This is not to blame ZiMA, who clearly feel they are the offended party, but this is a call for dialogue by all parties so that ordinary customers are not prejudiced.
On the other hand, the voice of the Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) is missing and in the wake of such a development, which threatens the very foundation of their organisation, they should be making the loudest noise in defence of their clients.
With the general joblessness, there are fewer people that can afford regular medical aid contributions and AHFoZ needs to treasure those few, because at this point the number of clients contributing will only continue to shrink.
The Health ministry also needs to take action, rather than force one party to accommodate the other, it needs to find a sustainable solution, so that this situation does not return in the future.
The Health ministry has its work cut out for it because health is a cross cutting issue, and this stalemate should be dealt with urgently before any loss of life is recorded. We trust that common sense will prevail at the end of the day.
