Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA Richinel Brug is rightly concerned about healthcare spending for undocumented persons (see related story) who do not contribute to the sickness and accident fund of Social and Health Insurances SZV. He mentioned an amount of 14 million Caribbean guilders during the last four years, steadily rising from Cg. 1.8 million in 2021 to Cg. 5.6 million in 2024.
The good news is that near 5,000 undocumented workers are in fact registered with SZV, meaning premium is paid on behalf of them. From the days of the former Netherlands Antilles Social Insurance Bank SVB, it has traditionally been possible to offer employees health coverage this way, regardless of their immigration status.
The latter can thus be no excuse to deny them such. Because of that there are fewer uninsured than so-called illegal migrants in the country, so in financial terms things could have been far worse. The employers involved are nevertheless encouraged to properly regulate their foreign staff, for the benefit of all involved.
Some wonder how healthcare medical services are even provided to persons without proof of insurance, but refusing urgent treatment is not in line with principles of the medical profession. Patients in these cases are presented with a bill, but collecting payment is often difficult due to their circumstances.
Nevertheless, neither doctors nor hospitals will easily turn away anybody in acute need of care including legal residents who for some reason have no insurance. That is simply the humane thing to do.
