AMMAN — The financial cost paid by the
Social Security Corporation (SSC) for the
health insurance program in its first year is JD180 million, said SSC’s
Director General Hazem Al-Rahahleh.
اضافة اعلان
Rahahleh said that while about 2 million Jordanians
lack any insurance benefits, JD750 million is spent annually by Jordanians
directly on private healthcare plans.
Nevertheless, health insurance is listed under the
insurance clauses in the Social Security Law since 1978, but it remained ink on
paper until a year ago.
Rahahleh explained that any project has certain
challenges and complications, especially with regard to health insurance. “We
must move towards” ensuring as many Jordanians as possible, he said.
He pointed out that medical care is integrated, and
should include treatment inside and outside hospitals. “This is the ideal
course, but the most important thing in health insurance is also the treatment
outside hospitals, and the medication.”
Treatment outside hospitals and medication is a
problem to many because it is expensive. “But these risks were avoided in the
first stage”, he said, referring to SSC’s nascent health insurance program. He
did not elaborate.
Insurance and social protection expert
Mousa Al-Subaihi said that Rahahleh’s statements “are not convincing”.
“He gave insufficient details on the health benefits
provided to beneficiaries, excluded diseases and the percentage of the
beneficiary’s bearing of the cost of medicine and treatment,” he told
Jordan
News.
He said the Rahahleh stated that there was a
“specialized medical committee that will supervise all these details, and this
means that the details of the health insurance are unknown to the director
general, or to the corporation”.
“This reflects a technical defect,” he pointed out.
“It is known that pricing health insurance is only
calculated after determining the details of the insurance, and this raises an
important question about how to calculate the cost of insurance and determine
the subscription of those covered by deducting 5 percent from their wages and
salaries,” Subaihi said.
He pointed out that “Rahahleh also said that
establishments with employees already subscribed in a health insurance plan
will not be allowed to enroll in SSC’s insurance”.
“He did not pay attention to paragraph (C) that was
added to Article 3, which is pertinent to health insurance,” he maintained.
He explained that the designated paragraph
“stipulates that establishments that provide their workers, or their retirees,
with private health insurance are allowed to participate in this insurance”.
In return, he added, the establishments must meet
their “obligation to pay a total of five percent of the workers’ wage, whereby
the establishment bears three percent of the total, and the remainder, or 2
percent, gets deducted from workers’ wage”.
SSC spokesperson
Shaman Al-Majali said that the
“projected cost for the first year of health insurance was based on several
studies conducted by the corporation, and other entities”.
He said that the cost “is considered normal, and
could be covered by contributions deducted from the wages of the insured, and
those covered by social security, in addition to pensions and salaries”.
“Our aim, through the program, is to cover those who
do not have health insurance,” he said. “Workers who already have health
insurance are not our goal.”
According to Majali, “SSC will include pensioners
who were employed in the private sector, who went out with no civil or military
insurance, as well as employees who are not insured by their facility with
health insurance”.
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