The proposed extension of social health insurance to the private sector will be postponed until further notice, due to financial concerns, said Social Security Corporation (SSC) director-general Mohammad Al-Tarawneh.
According to local media reports, Dr Al-Tarawneh said, “The health insurance project has been suspended because of the burden it places on the SSC.”
Experts in the labour and social insurance arenas agree with the decision, calling it “sound and correct” and said that the proposed scheme requires thorough study.
Budgeting and planning regarding future insurance revenues and expenditures must be made to ensure the adequacy of revenues generated from subscriptions and other sources to ensure that they are sufficient to cover healthcare and administrative expenses in the medium and long term, to ensure a surplus in the health insurance fund.
At the same time, the comprehensiveness, efficiency and fairness of the proposed scheme for the insured, beneficiaries and their families must be fair and balanced.
Dr Al-Tarawneh did not disclose when the proposed social health insurance scheme would be revived.
He said that an appropriate financial reserve should be allocated to enable the SSC to respond to any sudden changes in healthcare costs due to epidemics, general accidents, sudden high rates of inflation, unemployment and others.
Dr Al-Tarawneh said that the proposed scheme in its current format is marred by many gaps, including that medical treatment to be claimable under the scheme will only be provided by hospitals, and this is not acceptable to the insured.
He said, “Health insurance usually starts with primary healthcare, which begins outside the hospital.”
The majority of the Jordanian population is covered by social health protection. The Jordanian government, through the SSC, had proposed healthcare benefits for private-sector workers, pensioners and their families who are already under the scope of SSC coverage with a focus on inpatient care and cancer treatment. Currently, a third of the population in Jordan is not covered by health insurance.
Dr Al-Tarawneh said, “The insurance proposal contains strategic errors and relies on deducting 6% of the wages of the insurance participants, that is, without the participation of the employer and the government. This mechanism, in light of the current economic conditions, is difficult for the citizen to bear alone.”
He said, “The basic principle of health insurance is that it is based on three pillars: the worker, the employer and the government. If the interests of the three parties meet in providing health insurance and financing the bill for this insurance, it will succeed, but charging the bill for this insurance to one party but not others involves a kind of risk.” M