Basic Health Insurance premium will not go up

The premium of Basic Health Insurance will not go up. A political source told Times of Suriname that raising the premium of Basic Health Insurance would be political suicide. The source claims that the Council of Ministers was ordered to drop the plans for the Basic Health Insurance hike. The plans were aimed at raising the premium in an attempt to compel insurance companies to stick to their payment obligations. “Health insurance has indeed been under pressure for some time now and several models are being reviewed to get out of these problems. Raising the tariffs is not one of them,” said the source.

MP Jennifer Vreedzaam, chairwoman of the parliamentary committee on Health, pointed out that she applauded the decision to cancel the plans regarding the Basic Health Insurance premium hike. “We can’t keep solving the many problems of our healthcare in this manner. The best solution is to hold talks with all stakeholders and to get everybody on the same page so that the problems can be addressed integrally. The commission has already had several sessions with the various groups of stakeholders from the medical sector but the objective is to get all of them at the table,” said MP Vreedzaam who added that raising the premiums would only be a temporary solution and that the nation’s healthcare would keep ailing. She explained that legislators and the stakeholders want to amend the 2014 Basic Health Insurance Act. She also explained that no changes can take place until after the legislation on basic health insurance has been amended.