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Mr.Loukaidis, based on my intervention in the Audit Committee where I was called to discuss the Auditor General's report on OAS, made a personal attack against me, describing me as an opponent of the YESY.
At the meeting I did nothing less and nothing more than agree with the Auditor General's findings and support his recommendations. I wonder if, according to Mr. Loukaidis, the Auditor General is also an opponent of the YESY?
Mr. Loucaides falsely refers to a unilateral decision of the Ministry of Finance to "deprive €103 million from the GESY. Nothing more untrue. The €103 million relates to health expenditure (purchases of medicines, patient referrals to the private sector), currently covered by the Ministry of Health, which, according to the law, must be recovered from the global budget of the GESY. For this reason, the Ministry of Health, in agreement with the Ministry of Finance, has offset the State subsidy against these costs, recovering the amount in question. A practice which is widely applied in the public sector, in accordance with the relevant legislation. Both the Attorney General and the Auditor General, who even includes this in his recommendations and has made a public statement, are in agreement with this. It is something that ensures that the taxpaying citizen is not burdened twice, both through contributions and by covering health costs from the state budget, to the detriment of other social and development policies. In this way, the Health Insurance Agency (HIA) will, as it should, cover all health expenditure from the resources provided by society and the state and avoid wasteful and unprofitable agreements for society.
The strong political position I expressed was the faithful implementation of the legislation of the GHC and the respect of the global budget, in order to ensure the sustainability of the GHC, as were most of the positions of all the other parties except Mr.
The persistence of Mr Loukaidis to ignore the non-implementation of the legislation of the GHC, the abuses that nibble away at the global budget at the expense of patients, and the lack of control that is observed in the OAI, raises real questions.
The persistence of Mr Loukaidis to disregard the non-implementation of the legislation of the GHC, the abuses that nibble away at the global budget at the expense of patients, and the lack of control that is observed in the OAI. It is this attitude that in essence is polemic against the GHC and its viability and could be perceived as serving alien economic and partisan interests.
It is not the observance of legislation that is polemic against the GHC but the refusal to implement it and the abuses.
The government has strengthened the health sector more than any government in the past. Both by implementing the YESY and by upgrading hospitals. During the crisis the Ministry of Finance allocated more than €150 million extra to the health system to deal with the pandemic, which in no way affected the finances of the GHS, since during the same period the OAI suspended any payments to public hospitals. At the same time, the Council of Ministers decided that an amount of €50 million would be paid to the OAS budget if it was considered that the finances of the GHS were affected. The facts, however, speak for themselves. The Agency's cash assets/surplus at the end of 2021 exceeded €300 million
It is commonly accepted and acknowledged in detail in the Auditor General's Report that revenues during the period of implementation of the GHS were much higher than expected, due to the better performance of the Cypriot economy as a result of the sound economic policies pursued, which does not justify any explosion in health expenditure. The Agency, by not following rational resource management practices, by not carrying out the necessary controls, has led to an excessive increase in health expenditure of more than 40%, jeopardising the sustainability of the Plan.
I assure citizens that the Government will proceed responsibly and will demand the full implementation of legislation to properly implement the GHS, avoiding practices that promote abuses, tax evasion and unacceptable policies that undermine the sustainability of the GHS.
This is the only way to protect this important social achievement that we have managed to implement as a government. Opponents of the GHS or those who want to use the GHS for other reasons naturally disagree. This is where Mr. Loukaidis should address himself.
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