Health plan still in trouble

[NewsWhore]

Discounts to wages for the nation's health insurance plan (SFS) are supposed to begin in September, but it now seems that a political solution would have to be reached before anything happens. According to the Diario Libre, Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez assured reporters that the conditions are ripe for the start up and things should not be stalled. In addition to political interests, the minister said that business and personal interests are also acting as roadblocks to the process. Rojas said that the new health insurance would oblige sectors to offer services for which they have been collecting money but not providing complete service. In full page ads in all of today's press media, the Dominican Association of Health Insurance Providers (ADARS) points out that after a profound analysis of the scheme, they feel that the model that is being offered will not provide the quality of the services that their insured are accustomed to receive and, therefore, they cannot be part of the plan. As for reasons the ARS group says that the recently proposed idea of free access to health Service Providers is fine, as long as it is financially sustainable. However, their actuaries, as well as those working for the government, show an estimated deficit of between 30 and 46%, or RD$7.0 billion per year. Law 87-01 demands financial equilibrium in the system. Another point made by the ADARS was the fact that some requirements by the Treasury of the new system would eliminate as many as 600,000 of the current clients of the ARS, leaving them without and family health insurance.

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