Sant, Gonzi battle it out over health fees

Labour leader Alfred Sant yesterday released a 2004 policy proposal that makes the case for fees to be introduced in the health sector, claiming that the report had been discussed by Cabinet and, therefore, proved that the Prime Minister had lied when he recently denied that the matter had been discussed.

Lawrence Gonzi repeatedly denied that such discussions had taken place at Cabinet level when pressed by the Labour media.

In a brief televised press conference yesterday, Dr Sant juxtaposed 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".

"A serious democracy should not accept such bare-faced lying," Dr Sant said, insisting that it was "shameful".

Dr Gonzi was quick to reply, calling an urgent briefing in which he stood his ground and reiterated that the document had never actually made its way to Cabinet.

He said the Cabinet had only once discussed a memorandum dealing with the idea of introducing payments on the health service. The memo had been presented by the Health Minister but the ministers agreed that before any "definitive decisions could be taken" a more detailed policy proposal had to be submitted.

The report referred to by the opposition, Dr Gonzi insisted, was eventually presented to a sub-committee on social affairs within the Cabinet where it was shot down without reaching Cabinet proper.

Labour's attack rests on statements made in the report itself. The more specific of these comments is on page 11 and 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..."

When queried on this point during his press briefing, Dr Gonzi reiterated his position that the document had been blocked at sub-committee level. However, in response to questions sent by The Times, the Office of the Prime Minister later added that the sentence "was a misinterpretation on part of the experts that produced the document of the mandate that was given to them by Cabinet".

The experts interpreted the fact that the Cabinet asked for a policy proposal to mean that it had agreed to the proposal on fees in principle, the OPM argued. While insisting that the government had no plan to introduce any fees on the health service in the forthcoming legislature, Dr Gonzi pointed out that the guarantee for this lay in the fact that he had not made such changes over the past four years.

When faced with the fact that the document did not prove that the PN would actually introduce payments on the health service should it be re-elected, Dr Sant said that, in light of the Prime Minister's "lies" on the fact that there were such discussions, one could not trust him when he made that claim.

The Prime Minister defended himself on this point, highlighting the fact that he had managed to bring about a financial turnaround over the past years without introducing such measures whereas in his 22 month stint in government, Dr Sant reacted to the financial crisis he was unable to handle by introducing the notorious 50c tax on medicine supplied by the NHS.

Dr Sant insisted, however, that the measure was clearly not a revenue-generating tax but had been merely implemented to cut down on abuse by people who collect such medicines without needing them.

Beyond the political controversy, the document describes a serious financial situation in the health sector that needs urgent attention. "The current traditional funding of the national health sector from the general government revenue through the Consolidated Fund is detrimental to health police and planning," the document says, before going on to make the argument for the capital dedicated to the sector to be ring-fenced and not simply taken out of the Consolidated Fund.