The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) on Friday said the finance ministry’s decision to cut €150m from the Gesy budget will endanger the viability of the national health scheme, saying it was unilateral and irregular.
The budget cut will not be accepted by the organisation, its chair Thomas Antoniou told state radio, warning that this will destabilise Gesy. It is the state that owes the HIO and not the other way around, Antoniou said.
He added the organisation was informed about the budget cut during a heated discussion on the state of the national health scheme at the House watchdog committee on Thursday, during which the board of the HIO received arrest threats over alleged illegalities.
The debate on Thursday opened with the analysis of a report issued last week by the auditor-general on the HIO, which covers the period from the inception of Gesy, June 2019, up to December 2021. Among other things it detailed the extremely high salaries of some doctors.
Meanwhile, reports suggested the AG will submit its findings to the police on Friday.
Criticising the cut, Akel MP George Loukaides spoke of “scheming on the part of the finance minister”, which he said “aims to damage the viability of Gesy”.
Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides said that “those who are fighting Gesy are those who refuse to implement the legislation.
“With mathematical precision, they are leading this great conquest of all to collapse,” he said on Thursday.
The minister later tweeted his response tagging Loukaides, saying himself and the government, which implemented the scheme, are not against Gesy. “It was the Akel government that assured its non-introduction, leading to the resignation of the then head of HIO”.
Greens MP Stavros Papadouris supported the finance minister’s decision and said that the AG’s report has identified abuses in the operation of the HIO and the Auditor General will proceed with complaints to the Attorney General’s Office.
The intention to cut €150 million from the HIO is justified, Papadouris said, as these are payments that the HIO cannot cover and are eventually passed on to the health ministry.
Antoniou did not get the chance to respond to the cut and other allegations until after the finance minister left the session citing other responsibilities.
Petrides said the finance ministry “does not control” the finances of HIO, which does not apply a balanced budget, while a series of medical services are exempt from Gesy and get saddled onto the finance ministry – that is, transferred to taxpayers.
Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantelas conceded that problems and abuses exist within Gesy and that previous contracts signed with private healthcare facilities for the same surgeries have different prices.
The chairman dismissed the notion that the organisation’s contracts with private hospitals and clinics were unlawful.
Hitting back, he said that HIO board includes people from the ministries of finance and health, who did not object to these contracts. The contracts were also signed off by ex-Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou, he claimed.
A meeting of the HIO board of directors in the presence of the health minister will be held on Tuesday, focusing on the abuses of the health scheme and ways to reduce them.
According to the health minister, in the new contracts with private healthcare facilities, the provision of the relevant legislation would be implemented – namely prohibiting the exercise of private medical practice in facilities enrolled with Gesy.
The contracts will be forwarded to the attorney-general for vetting, ensuring that all healthcare providers are treated equally.
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