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Post # 1
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Join Date: 04 Mar 2015
Location:  KuwaitPosts: 87 |
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Where Is The Expatriates’ Health Insurance Money? |
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Where Is The Expatriates’ Health Insurance Money?
For years now, expats living in Kuwait have been paying KD 50 a year to health insurance companies per person, and in return, none of these companies provides them with any healthcare whatsoever, and neither does the health ministry or the Cabinet forces these companies to do so. Nonetheless, expats cannot renew their residency visas unless they pay the health insurance fees, which makes one wonder where all the money expats are paying to receive medical and healthcare along with their family members has gone?! I do not know the point in imposing such fees on expats if insurance companies do not finance their medical treatment, nor does the health ministry. By simple calculation of the total sums expats pay for health insurance, the figure simply reaches $1 billion a year and adds up to $15 billion taking into consideration that expats started paying these fees in 1999. Such a sum is more than enough to build, man and equip five entire hospitals with the latest medical equipment and can also help build more than ten fully-equipped clinics to provide them with healthcare. However, expats still go to public hospitals for medical treatment and are forced to pay extra fees for each test, radiology, diagnosis and medicine. So, what is the point of the health insurance they have been paying?! Had the state used these sums in building new hospitals and clinics, it would have hit two birds with one stone. It would have saved the state budget fortunes, provided citizens with proper healthcare and it would not have needed to build new hospitals because our current ones’ capacity is enough to serve citizens and provide them with proper healthcare, because they number no more than 1.2 million. This would also end crowds in public hospitals, put an end to bed scarcity and reduce the number of patients visiting OPDs. So, in pure black and white - I mention this in view of growing calls to impose health insurance on retirees, which makes us wonder about the money collected from expats ever since 1999 as health insurance fees without seeing or hearing about building a single hospital or clinic or even signing contracts with private hospitals to treat expats. We have to warn of such a tendency, which we believe was made for profiteering in the private sector at the expense of retirees. We need to know the feasibility of such a proposed project before we approve it. Source:kuwaittimes http://news.kuwaittimes.net/where-is-the-expatriates-health-insurance-money/ |
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