Aasandha Company's Managing Director Aminath Zeeniya has said that 56 percent of the Aasandha budget allocated by the government is utilized for pharmacies.
While speaking at the SOE Committee of the Parliament on Tuesday, December 12, Zeeniya highlighted that the largest portion of the Aasandha budget is spent on pharmaceuticals or medicine. She said that the currently effective bulk procurement policy would help offset the significant expenditure made in purchasing medicine.
At the committee, Zeeniya revealed that 11 of the most in-demand medicine are brought under the bulk procurement policy.
Aasandha held discussions with the World Health Organization (WHO) to seek cost-cutting approaches, and the organization presented viable models for this, said Zeeniya.
"We are working to implement this within the first three months. We believe this approach would help reduce prices to an extent," she said.
She also said that Aasandha does not have any discretion in listing the pharmacies for which the health insurance scheme would be extended and instead, it is decided at the policy level.
"For instance, designating a particular pharmacy for a certain population. The highest expenditure is incurred for pharmacies after all," she added.
She also emphasized breaches to the policy in acquiring medicine, which has been restricted recently by way of sending a text message containing an OTP code to the buyer's phone.
The second highest expenditure from the Aasandha budget is concentrated on private hospitals. According to Zeeniya, although expenses for procedures are affordable, the final invoiced bill reflects a significantly higher expenditure. She said there that the state lacks any control on this since there is no co-payment agreement with the Ministry of Health.
"For instance, the allocated Aasandha insurance amount for a cesarean operation is MVR 1,000, but when the patient is done with it, the procedure's cost might be close to MVR 300,000. To reduce this cost, we have to spend on private hospitals the same as for abroad," Zeeniya said.
According to Zeeniya, expenditure on private hospitals can be reduced by improving the services of Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH); the largest state-run hospital.
So far in 2023, the government spent MVR 1.7 billion on Aasandha, while the annual budgeted total is MVR 2.3 billion.
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