Legislators unite to condemn doctors’ demand for cash from medical aid patients

When medical doctors are paid through medical aid societies, it is easier for ZIMRA to trace tax because there is a paper trail.  However, when medical doctors are paid cash, it might be difficult for ZIMRA to trace their tax because there is no paper trail.  I walk into a surgery today, and medical doctor A charges me $60 for consultation and maybe $200 for his service and might choose not to give me a receipt.  So, ZIMRA might not be able to trace that.

Most importantly is that when there is a problem between the medical insurance company and the medical doctor, it is not a member of the public or the medical aid society who should suffer.  Why should ordinary people suffer?  The person who must suffer is either the company that is deducting money from the employee, which is not remitting to the medical aid society or the medical aid society which is not collecting its money from the employees.  The person who is contributing money has nothing to do with the relationship between the medical doctor and the medical aid society.

Hon. Chipato is contributing her $60 a month and all she needs are spectacles.  She is not concerned about the relationship between the optician and the medical aid society.  She is contributing money because she knows that cash is hard to come by.  One day she will fall ill in the middle of the month when she does not have cash to go and consult a medical doctor.  She must be able to walk in, produce her medical aid card and get attention.  She should not suffer because there is an impasse between PSMAS and medical doctors.  Medical doctors should find a way of getting their money on time from medical aid societies.  That has nothing to do with the people who are contributing money.  Why should we be held to ransom for the sake of the relationship of these two?

Mr. Speaker, people who are working in Government includes the 874 000 members of the Premier Service who are paying money on a monthly basis.  When you get your payslip, it indicates that you have contributed so much to tax, NSSA and medical aid.  Therefore, you must be able to walk into any doctor and say please give me a service and you must get it.  Whether the doctor is going to get his money from the medical insurance company or not is not your business.  Medical aid is a form of insurance and that is why we even insure our cars.  You insure your car in the event that one day you will get into an accident.  When you get into an accident, you do not want to walk into an insurance company and they tell you that the money that your company was deducting was not getting to us, so we cannot fix your car.

Mr. Speaker, I would want to say, firstly medical insurance companies must pay doctors on time for the services rendered.  That goes without saying.  When someone renders a service, they must get paid.  The payment of money to medical doctors must not have anything to do with contributors or the ordinary people.  I do not think Zimbabwe Medical Association must hold people to ransom and make statements which cause despondency in the country.  The statement that they put in the newspapers basically says that no medical doctor is going to attend to a patient without cash upfront.  That is the import of their statement; no money, no treatment and the statement is factually incorrect.  There are some doctors today who are giving service without money. I am on Cellmed and the day before yesterday, I went to see a dentist.  I produced my card and I got a service.  I am supposed to go back to the dentist in the next three weeks and three weeks will be well into July.

After reading the newspaper and the statement of the Zimbabwe Medical Association, I now begin to think, am I going to get a service or not.  When I phoned my dentist, he said no, no, no, I am not even bound by the statement because I am not a member of that voluntary association.  I am a member of the Association of Dentists.  He said there are other medical doctors like surgeons who are not bound by the statement and they would be very happy to give service.

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