The government plans to sell-out General Health Scheme to big private interests

 AKEL C.C. Press Office, 29th April 2014, Nicosia

In astonishment we heard the Minister of Health reiterating and admitting on behalf of the Government that instead of dealing with the implementation of General Health Scheme (GHS) as it has been studied, planned and agreed, they are looking at ways of serving the interests of big private insurance companies on the pretext that “time is pressing us”. The only assertion this Government is putting forth to the Troika is that of extra time to find ways of selling off the right to health to big capital interests.

The GHS, as it has been planned, is the result of a social consensus between all the agencies constituting the health and medical structure of Cyprus: employers, workers, political parties and the state. It is the outcome of studies conducted over many years by internationally-recognised experts and secures to a great extent equal access and social solidarity, is economically sustainable and does not burden the state budget.

The Minister says that “the possibility of a mixed plan is being looked at”. Many and harsh questions are subsequently raised:

1. Who conducted this study behind closed doors and behind the backs of the people, professionals in the health sector, trade unions, employers, political parties and the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO), which is the competent agency responsible for implementing the GHS?

2. Is the Minister and the government willing to completely destroy the social consensus that has been achieved so painstakingly on such an important sector that has to do with people’s health?

3. If, as the Minister stated, the time schedules are tight and there is much to be done then is less time needed to study and implement a new health care plan than a plan which we have been studying for 14 years?

4. Doesn’t the Government know that where mixed systems operate the cost as a rule is much greater (e.g. USA, Netherlands and Switzerland)?

5. Will the delay in the implementation of the GHS, in conjunction with the situation they have managed to create in the state health sector with the adoption of the Memorandum, result in a Health Scheme that will serve the insurance companies?

6. Did the budget reduction by 53 million Euros seek the weakening of state hospitals in order to serve the policy of selling-off the Health sector?

7. Did the abolition of the creation of x-ray units in Nicosia and Limassol, of a heart surgery centre in Limassol serve the same goal – that is to say, the creation of private monopolies in health?

The Minister himself has admitted repeatedly in statements that the current situation in the health sector has reached a deadlock. The Minister himself declares that the timetables are suffocating. And instead of the government – in line these suffocating frameworks – dealing with the correction of all the bad situations in hospitals, instead of being concerned with the upgrading of hospitals, the reorganization of the Ministry of Health and the preparation and implementation of the GHS, it is in fact devoting its efforts to finding ways of serving the interests of those backing it.

As AKEL, we have repeatedly stated that we are ready to support the efforts for a General Health Scheme as designed and agreed; a GHS based on the principles of universality, equal access and solidarity. They will find us opposing them and any possible attempts and approaches for the establishment of a GHS that will seek to sell out the health system to big private interests. We call on all the health staff and professionals to rally their forces with us against the sell-out of the Health sector and its conversion from a right to a privilege for those who have money.