Jamaica Health Minister says health insurance companies must pay for public health services to their clients

Jamaica’s Health Minister Horace Dalley has announced that health insurance companies will be required to pay for services delivered to their clients at public health facilities.
 
He says while Government has been underwriting the entire cost of health care since 2007 when user fees were abolished at hospitals and health centers, insurance providers have been saving millions of dollars in pay-outs.
 
“We are subsidizing the insurance companies. Well that [has to stop]. When you come to the health facility, you are going to be asked, ‘do you have a health card?’ If you have health insurance . . . the health insurance company will have to pay their portion,” Dalley told Jamaicans.