The author of a 2004 document on the financing of health services, revealed by Labour leader Alfred Sant on Wednesday, issued a sworn statement yesterday saying the Cabinet had not discussed his proposals.

Ray Xerri, the director of the special initiatives section within the Health Ministry, had led a team who drafted the controversial document.

"It is my duty... to give my opinion in a way that could help improve the health service while ensuring the sustainability of the health sector," he said of his involvement with the document, which proposes the introduction of fees for health care.

The report, called the Health Financing Reform Policy Proposal, was released by Dr Sant who said it proved the Prime Minister had "lied blatantly" when he denied that Cabinet had discussed introducing fees on the health service.

Lawrence Gonzi denied that such discussions had taken place at Cabinet level.

In a brief televised press conference, Dr Sant juxtaposed the clips of the Prime Minister's denials with passages from the document, which say, among other things, that the "Cabinet has agreed in principle to this (fees on the health sector) concept".

Dr Gonzi insisted that the document had never actually made its way to Cabinet proper but had been shot down by a sub-committee on social affairs within the Cabinet.

The crucial sentence in the document says: "Fees imposed by regulations for the provision of health care or health support services to Maltese or foreign citizens. The Cabinet has agreed in principle to (sic) this concept but fees for Maltese citizens will not be introduced for the moment due to their political underpinnings..."

Dr Xerri insisted in his statement that the passage was only his "interpretation at that point in time".

"Point no. 4 (the sentence in question) and the entire document does not represent the position of the Cabinet and the government. In fact, Minister Dr Louis Galea had refused to discuss it within the committee," he said, adding that since then the report had been archived.

The Times contacted Dr Xerri to ask how he could have reached such an interpretation if the Cabinet had not actually taken such a position on the matter. He said: "I am not part of the Cabinet so when you are asked to make a global vision for financial health care, you assume... and it's not just co-financing, it's the health fund, it's everything. You assume that in principle they (Cabinet) are agreeing".

In his report, Dr Xerri also felt he should say that "fees for Maltese citizens will not be introduced for the moment due to their political underpinnings".

On this point, he said: "We should all shoulder our responsibility and that document is my responsibility. That was my interpretation of the scenario I was working in. I might have been wrong. I might have been right..."

The Labour Party's secretary general, Jason Micallef, said when contacted that in his statement Dr Xerri had actually confirmed that discussions had taken place when he said that "the document in question was drafted after the Cabinet requested a detailed proposal regarding the financing of the health service..."

"These things do not just happen but follow discussions beforehand. You don't just ask for expert advice out of the blue.

"And this not to mention that Dr Xerri had a conflict of interest in this matter given that he is still working at the Health Ministry," he continued. When it was pointed out to him that Dr Xerri had sworn his statement, Mr Micallef remarked: "What do you expect him to say? That the Prime Minister lied?"

Dr Gonzi is insisting that the Cabinet had only once discussed a memorandum dealing with the idea of introducing payments on the health service and that the ministers agreed that before any "definitive decisions could be taken" a more detailed policy proposal had to be submitted.

Mr Micallef, said this was further proof that discussions had indeed taken place and that the Prime Minister had "lied blatantly" about the matter.

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