Legal Insurance Information No. (266)
I have written more than ten times about the importance of studying social health insurance before starting to implement it, and that activating this insurance in the Social Security Law requires a review of paragraphs (c, d, e) of Article 3 of the law. However, the Social Security Corporation was hastily preparing a special discretionary system for health insurance without realizing the need to refer to the law and review and amend the aforementioned paragraphs of Article 3, especially Clause 2 of Paragraph E of this Article, with the necessity that this paragraph include specifying the rates of deduction from wages for the purposes of implementing this insurance, whether from the insured, the establishment, or what the Kingdom’s government contributes. And that the issue of specifying the rates of deduction not be left to the system that will be issued for this purpose, similar to the four implemented insurances, for which the texts of the law specified the rates of deduction for each of them, detailing what the insured bears and what the establishment bears from it.
Despite everything we've written, the institution had previously proceeded with the development of the system and was close to sending it to the Council of Ministers for issuance and subsequent implementation during the first quarter of this year at most. However, it finally backed down after a self-assessment. In its recent statements, the institution justified the delay in implementing insurance by linking it to an amendment to the law, including the amendment to the paragraph we referred to.
But my feeling is that the amendment that the institution will make will focus on canceling the establishment’s contribution to the cost of this insurance and exempting the government from bearing any financial consequences, and limiting it to the insured person alone bearing the full cost, so that he will ultimately obtain partial health insurance (half insurance), and this is a great injustice to the beneficiary, whether the insured person or the retiree..!
Re-examine and review all health insurance scenarios you intend to implement to ensure they are more equitable, efficient, and sustainable. We will return to this topic more than once, God willing.