26_September [Archives:2005/839/Press Review]
28 Apr. 2005
Main headlines
– PM stresses on enhancement of efforts for radiation safety
– Cabinet discusses final results for operating the container port beginning of June
– In implementation of the president's directives, a regional bone surgery hospital is to be built by Cuban expertise
– Confirming the person who hurled the bomb in front of customs building from al-Houthi followers, security source denies that General Ali Siyani was the target
– 45 Saudi companies take part in the second forum of Saudi and Yemeni businessmen
– Seizure of two ferries active in smuggling migrants, 1800 infiltrators and illegal residents seized since the beginning of last April
Columnist Abdulsamad al-Qaleesi says in an article that he has thought the application of health insurance was an easy matter and to be easily gained. He says the time I pondered the subject I found out that it is a wide-ranged topic. The constitution of the Yemeni republic stipulates the right of the citizen to health care and the state is obliged to guarantee this right. But the constitutional text has left it to the law to organize the citizen's obtaining free health care, and that the law has not been issued yet.
There is a draft law on health insurance and another for the establishment of the state authority for health insurance prepared by the ministry of health. The two drafts were presented to the Shoura Council that presented its remarks in prelude to submit to the cabinet and then to parliament.
The point is that the draft laws do not meet the end and would not realize the goal. There are experts in the field of health insurance who have expressed their important remarks about them. I think the specialized parties should take them into consideration and rather reconsider the text of the two draft laws.
The major problem in the subject is the government employees and the acute decline in the level of their salaries. If a large installment were deducted from their salaries for health insurance, they and their families would need to cover expenses of the minimum level of living, even if the government would pay 50% of those installments.
On the other hand, if deducted installments were little, the insurance companies would not accept that. This would either cause their loss or impose on them to set a low ceiling of medical service, which would not offer actual care for the employee.
The second problem is that the health insurance mentioned in both draft laws is confined to the employee alone without his family. In this case who would undertake treatment of his family and how?
Among the remarks displayed by the Shoura council there is a phrase saying each participant would contribute according to his financial potentiality and gets health services according to his need. The state has to reconsider the so-called the society contribution to expenses of health care as the citizen is now obliged to pay 75% of the costs of examinations and treatment, which is a matter very unfair.
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[archive-e:839-v:13-y:2005-d:2005-05-05-p:press]
