ZFE appeals to Lungu not to sign Health Insurance Bill

IT is our position that President Lungu should not assent to the National Health Insurance Bill, as doing so will curtail private sector growth and impact negatively on GDP, says the Zambia Federation of Employers (ZET).

ZFE president Wesley Chishimba says enacting the Bill would increase unemployment and reduce Central Treasury revenue collection.

In a statement, Mr. Chishimba said ZFE had expected Parliament to accept the Committee on Health, Community Development and Social Services’ recommendation to defer the Bill until the stakeholders were properly consulted.

“It was therefore with shock and dismay that instead, the House passed the Bill. Equally disappointing was the characterisation during the debates of employers as profit-hungry entities that have no concern for the welfare of the country’s citizens. We are tired of being demonised when all employers know that their enterprise will fail if they do not care for the health and welfare of their employees.

“That is why many employers already have medical schemes in place for their employees. We wonder if there would be any Zambian in employment if most or all companies were loss making entities. We cannot be demonised on one hand, and expected to support the entire economy of this country on the other,” Mr. Chishimba said.

He said the private sector was the only viable source of the one million jobs the Government planned to create.

“How can the private sector create those jobs when it is run into the ground with tax after tax and no corresponding relief? Last year, the skills development levy was imposed at 0.5 percent of every single employee’s salary, including casual workers.

“It is our position that enacting this Bill will cost the private sector employers huge sums of money per year. It would immediately put a number of salaried workers at risk of retrenchment. It is our position that we, as a nation, need to create more jobs, not diminish the appetite for employers to do so,” Mr. Chishimba added.

He said the ZFE and its social partners were available to be engaged in a consultative process that would address social welfare and national medical insurance schemes in a holistic and sustainable manner.

“The current, rushed and ill-conceived scheme, is unsustainable and will merely bring more misery to the people of Zambia at large,” he said.