Finance Minister Marinka Gumbs confirmed that the old-age AOV pension reserves could be depleted soon (see Monday newspaper) if nothing is done about growing deficits at Social and Health Insurance SZV. The healthcare funds it manages lose approximately 50 million Caribbean guilders per year.
For more than a decade this annual shortage has been compensated with AOV means. The cumulative amount has meanwhile ballooned to Cg. 500 million.
Apart from a yet-to-be-implemented Tourist Tax, fiscal reforms and enhanced compliance, the issue will be tackled by adopting the Sustainable Affordable Access Healthcare Act (SAAHA). The latter is to broaden the insurance pool and streamline healthcare delivery, significantly reducing operational cost.
That sounds good, but the stated intention was also to improve the medical coverage provided, which raises questions about extra expenses. For example, the introduction of Aruba’s General Sickness Provision AZV was followed by years of heavy losses for which government ended up paying the bill.
Expanding the premium base makes sense, especially if more presently unregistered and often undocumented workers are added. After all, they cannot be denied urgent treatment anyway in case of an emergency, regardless of their insurance and residency status.
However, to what extent all this helps remains to be seen. The wage limit for SZV’s current coverage was already increased six-fold a few years ago, but that alone apparently did not solve the problem.
Prudence when it comes to SAAHA’s impact is therefore advised.
