MPs shared the difficulties and challenges they faced in accessing health coverage abroad.
Several parliamentarians yesterday expressed concern claiming they faced difficulties in accessing overseas medical coverage under the Allied health insurance scheme granted to them as parliamentarians.
The issue was raised during a committee meeting held yesterday to discuss revising the health insurance policy for lawmakers, which was put together in 2016.
During the meeting, where audio was cut off for an extended period, Feydhoo MP Ibrahim Didi—who is also the father of Homeland Minister Ali Ihusan—was the first to voice out concerns about the difficulties faced by parliamentarians.
The main issue highlighted was about having to pay out of pocket to obtain a new letter for coverage when seeking a second consultation abroad for a different condition than the condition mentioned in the original letter.
Supporting these claims, Thimarafushi MP Ahmed Riyaz said he experienced these difficulties, adding that lawmakers should not have to face such difficulties when they pay a significant premium for the service.
However, it is the state that pays the MVR 24,000 premium per MP for the health insurance scheme, which also covers their spouses and minor children from SAARC and ASEAN countries.
Sharing his experience, Riyaz said he recently travelled to India for medical purposes with a letter from Allied Insurance, but was required to pay out of pocket to consult other doctors.
He went onto say that this was not something that they had to arrange by directly calling Allied Inusrance or another person via the parliament. He said they should not have to bear the additional burden.
Riyaz shared how difficult the reimbursement process was because he had to "spend a lot of time [on the process] to fill up the forms and submit the [forms] there."
"[When I applied for reimbursement] they rejected it. I WhatsApped them and told them I am a member - that they could not reject submissions by us - that they should not [reject our claims]. I also came after spending a lot of money," he said.
"But I only got MVR 3,000, so this should not happen this way."
The committee has yet to decide on the revision of MPs' health insurance.
This discussion took place amid nationwide concerns by the public over difficulties accessing medicines prescribed to them.
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