From today, at least according to the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZiMA), doctors will stop accepting medical aid as payment for their services.
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ZiMA issued this deadline several weeks ago and many thought it was gamesmanship to force medical aid societies and the taxman, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), to play ball, but it seems both cannot be bothered and the doctors are also hell-bent on carrying out their threats.
This stalemate is quite toxic for people who have religiously paid their medical aid subscriptions and are now set to be denied medical attention due to some tiff by petulant groups, who are refusing to budge and let reason take over.
The Association of Health Funders of Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) claims to be on top of the situation, but on Tuesday it issued one of the most cryptic and ambiguous statements ever on what happens after the lapse of the deadline issued by ZiMA.
Bizarrely, AHFoZ says patients should first seek medical attention and if they are denied, they then should contact their medical aid provider. How this will help, they do not say.
AHFoZ then go on to say that most doctors will ignore ZiMA’s ultimatum, yet they do not say where they are getting this confidence from, meaning patients could be left in the lurch.
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Either AHFoZ are just putting on a brave face and crossing their fingers that from tomorrow things will remain as they are or they are absolutely inept and this bravado is nothing, but a façade.
It is easy to be angry at doctors and accuse them of greed, but people pay money to medical aid societies and if they do not get a service, then they should direct their ire at these organisations where they invest their money.
Doctors have been on record that medical aid societies are not remitting money or, at best, do so long after the 60-day period permitted by law and AHFoZ has been conspicuously quiet about this accusation.
And the worst thing in all this is that the heavily compromised Health minister David Parirenyatwa remains as mute as a fish instead of addressing an issue that directly affects his ministry.
It is not lost on many Zimbabweans that Parirenyatwa was paid $100 000 for services he had not rendered, yet, ironically, doctors claim medical aid societies are failing to pay for services they would have offered.
This is the time we should see Parirenyatwa doing something and earning his keep, but he has allowed this situation to deteriorate to such levels where ultimatums are being issued.
Since it’s already the 11th hour, it is not about who is wrong or right, what Zimbabweans want is that this should be fixed and urgently too.
