Doubts over parents’ benefiting from medical cover

It is not yet clear whether parents stand a chance to benefit from health insurance schemes of their children since the government is yet to give its stand on the matter, MP François Byabarumwanzi told The New Times on Monday.The current law only provides cover to beneficiaries’ partners and children but debate is ongoing in Parliament whether the draft law on health insurance schemes should also include parents.The draft legislation is under scrutiny by the parliamentary Committee on National Unity, Human Rights and the fight against genocide.“Up to now, the committee has really not made conclusions on the matter because we are waiting to get the government’s take from the Ministry of Health,” Byabarumwanzi, the committee’s chairperson, said. Byabarumwanzi said the ministry of health officials will most likely return to Parliament next Tuesday to expound on the issue. Spencer Bugingo, a legal expert in Ministry of Health, told The New Times that a joint study by the ministries of health and finance, as well as the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), will decide on the issue. However, the lawmaker noted that the study which should not be a big deal since government departments have the required data.The ongoing debate, according to Bugingo, is whether to cover parents of people under public health insurance schemes such as Military Medical Insurance (MMI) or RAMA.“Some affiliates of MMI cover their old people, but there is no clear legal framework. To commit themselves, they need the figures to be able to project the number of old beneficiaries in the future.”Insurance companies are not willing to take on ‘parents’ of employed beneficiaries without knowing the exact figures as well as future projections of the elderly population.The debate on the issue came to light in February when MPs wondered article nine of the bill did not provide cover for a beneficiary’s parents.During the initial scrutiny of the draft law on health insurance schemes, the committee insisted that apart from a beneficiary’s spouse and children, their parents ought to benefit too.At the time, the MPs did not buy explanations from MoH and RSSB officials, which claimed that including beneficiaries’ parents would lead to financial losses and implementation difficulties.One concern, especially from the RSSB, was that the seemingly simple notion of a parent, in the Rwandan cultural context, is “elastic” and often includes relatives such as a father-in-law and other elderly people under one’s care.However, lawmakers objected saying that such a claim was not backed by convincing empirical evidence.