Online Reporter
Nyore Madzianike
Senior Reporter
The Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe has appealed to Parliament to intervene and consider its concerns on amendments made to the Medical Services Amendment Act.
The association made the appeal when it appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs at New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden on Monday.
Presenting its submissions before the committee, chaired by MP Eddison Zvobgo (Jr) and the association’s board chairperson, Mr Stanford Sisya, said the amendments were depriving the association and citizens of their significant investments.
Among the key amendments are the prohibition of medical aid societies from providing healthcare services and the introduction of a risk-based capital model aimed at enhancing financial stability and supervision in the sector.
“One of the things that we are expecting is that we should not have a prohibition of services for medical aid,” he said.
“We want to be in that space because for us it’s an issue of cost containment and protectability of the care that is expected for our members.
“We expect the committee to address even the issues to do with the constitutional aspect, to say there have been violations in terms of property rights.
“And also this amendment is also infringing on the issue of the city’s health commission.We should be looking at these issues rather than the Medical Services Act.”
Mr Sisya said some of the amendments had been overtaken by events following the establishment of the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC), which regulates the operations of the association’s members.
“We also want to highlight to the committee that there is now regulation by IPEC and this amendment now has been overtaken by events.
“So it needs to be recognised that they don’t need to amend the Medical Services Act because it was already taken care of by IPEC coming in as a regulator.
“So for us, I think as a force we believe that the committee should actually look at the constitutional aspect.
“That is why we are emphasising much more on the legal side since it’s on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to look at the process and everything. So that is our expectation.”
