Farid el-Khazen Member of Parliament
The voluntary [National Social Security Fund] is a scandal. The scheme has been discontinued and yet the fund has not [told members], so people still pay their annual fees. This is unacceptable — someone should put an end to it. The NSSF has all the ills a bureaucratic administration can have. There is no control, no supervision or coordination [in the health sector], all of which should be taken care of by the government. For the money we pour into the system we should have better results.
Tony Zreik Physician, University Medical Center Rizk Hospital (UMC-RH)
Health tourism is currently not organized, and it must be if you want to make it viable. You can do a lot if you are an individual hospital but ultimately it comes to nothing if it is not a nationwide policy and vision. Every hospital wants to attract patients from everywhere but this requires a lot of things. Good equipment, doctors and nurses, these are not enough. You have to have a vision. You have to set up from the day the patient books the flight until the operation. Things are being done globally for health tourism that are highly advanced… It is the government that has to take the initiative. Look at Jordan, who is competing with us, they have a global vision [that has a strong] national strategy.
Health tourism is very realistic and attainable but it has requirements that collectively have to be worked on.
“Health tourism is realistic and attainable” – Tony Zreik Physician
Samir Arnaout Representative, the Lebanese Order of Physicians and associate professor of medicine, AUB
As a doctor I am covered by the American University Hospital but also as a worker I am covered by the NSSF, and if I am admitted to hospital, both will cover me. On top of this, 10 percent will be covered by the Lebanese Order of Physicians. Hence, some Lebanese individuals are covered three times and others are not covered at all.
There is a conflict between physicians and insurance groups. The Lebanese Order of Physicians is trying to increase tariffs because there have been none, despite marked inflation. But private insurance companies do not want to increase tariffs. They prefer to keep them as is. If a doctor is not living according to good standards then…everything will be in chaos. This is not acceptable.
Roula Zahar Financial director, Mount Lebanon Hospital
The voluntary NSSF fund, which you can belong to by paying a premium, has failed completely. Hospitals today do not accept this coverage and those individuals that are in this program have no coverage at all. This scheme has to be mandatory to all citizens, so that healthy people pay for the sick and a balance is created.
[Universal health] coverage is part of the public’s responsibility. If you don’t cover your population you might have a disaster. Hospitals are in a dilemma: on one hand they cannot go on paying for [NSSF members’] drugs and treatments, [on the other, they have a duty of care]. It is a clash between financial and human needs and they don’t know what to do… Coverage is the most important issue. This is where you start from, so that medicine is available to everyone.
