‘Efforts make systems work’
the health insurance systems in the two largest democracies in the western world suffer from countless problems. the system has eroded in britain and the trump administration in the us has tried hard to abolish it but failed to present an alternative, so it remains as it is with large deficiencies.
many experts believe that the health insurance system in kuwait is not sustainable in its current form and must either be abolished or radically developed and close the gaps which have allowed many to exploit it to make illegal profits.
it is very important to link private and public hospitals to prevent manipulation. the current treatment in private hospitals, in spite of all the distinctive treatment, luxury, and cleanliness, does not make the patient dispense with government hospitals in the event of difficulty in his/her health condition, and this happens a lot.
some of the patients are subjected to distortion, disability, and deterioration of health status when transferring them to a government hospital because of the inability of the private hospital to provide treatment for a difficult condition or even deal with a difficult delivery, for example
the solution is not to expand insurance coverage but to make good use of existing government hospitals and hand them over to those who know how to manage these distinctive medical edifices in buildings, services and advanced machines, which we have failed to manage properly.
a friend says kuwait has built its political and social system on the principle of mixing different systems. its political system is a combination of parliamentary and presidential. its economy is also a mixture of capitalism and socialism as in a number of scandinavian countries. therefore, vital services such as health, education, social security, and electricity need to be in the hands of the state in order not to become a merciless capitalist system.
i was one of those who believed in the privatization of various services, but in the light of the lack of experience, the interference of politics in the administrative work, and the increasing number of those who seek senior positions to achieve personal gains, has made me believe that we need an external administration to control many of our services.
one of the approaches to organizing ‘afya’ health insurance system is to allow international insurance companies to participate in the competition and improve the level of government hospitals. it is a shame that the huge jaber hospital is operating only barely 10% of its capacity.
if we had made an effort to take care of the dispensaries, spending 10% of what is spent on treatment abroad, and encouraged talents, especially from good kuwaiti doctors to work even for a few hours a day, we would have lifted a huge burden from the shoulders of the hospitals.