President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Monday intervened to reverse the decision by the universal health insurance provider 'Aasandha' to cover only state health care facilities.
Aasandha Company had announced the decision via an impromptu circular late Sunday saying that the universal health insurance would no longer cover any private health care providers. The decision was made by the national board of health insurance systems in order to review and revise the current regulation.
The sudden nature of the decision had understandably sparked media and public outrage aiming intense criticism of the government.
President's Office however in a statement denied any involvement in the decision insisting that the government had only instructed the board to review and realign the insurance system in accordance with international best practice to yield optimum benefit for the people.
"The government in no way had instructed to exclude private health care facilities from the scheme," the statement read.
"So the government has now instructed Aasandha to reverse the decision and find alternative ways to optimize the scheme to minimize leakage from the state budget."
The government’s health insurance scheme, “Husnuvaa Aasandha”- health insurance for all without a ceiling was launched by President Yameen in February 2014, as part of his key electoral pledge to provide comprehensive medicare for a healthy population.
