Islanders could be compelled to use their medical insurance
ISLANDERS could be encouraged or compelled to use their medical insurance to avoid the States having to pay for services, said Health and Social Care vice-president Marc Leadbeater.
During answers to questions about what services might be delivered to the public free of charge, or were free which might be paid in future, he said that some people were given ‘rewards’ for not using medical insurance when accessing health services.
Many people had medical insurance included with their job, said Deputy Leadbeater.
‘But many people do not use that medical insurance. They will often get a kick-back from their insurance company to not use that medical insurance.
‘We have to find a way to encourage people to not do that, even if we can compel them to in some way.’
That would make ‘a considerable dent’ in HSC’s budget and he said it was hard to quantify how many people were using services funded via HSC who could be having them paid for by insurance.
Conflicting advice had been given to the committee about how it might be able to compel the use of medical insurance, but the idea of paying users whatever the insurer offered had been discussed as an option, and HSC president Al Brouard said it was an idea that was going to be looked at.
