SURAKSHA – just one of many misconceptions before it even starts!

Suraksha was launched at Temple Trees yesterday, amidst 5,000+ students who have been bused in from schools, as fodder, to whom we are further burdening an already heavy legacy for their future. That is a criminal act.

After reading this below if anyone thinks otherwise, then I am afraid they are unfit.

This is clearly a case of leaders who will no doubt discover that they have shot themselves in the foot without realizing it. A case of votes for today, and country’s misery tomorrow! Also known as predictable government policy whoever governs.

This scheme launched by the Education Ministry, using coverage exclusively provided by Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, as NO OTHER insurance company on earth would even bid for such a scheme, is estimated to cost Rs3Billion in premiums for the Government via the Education Ministry. This cost will rise and not fall adding to the already overburdened tax payer who had NO say in this matter, of whether the government should get involved in such a hairbrained scheme.

Don’t ever forget that anything that is free provided by the Government is at a huge cost to the Tax Payer and if our history is anything to go by at a considerably lower return on investment than private funding.

Just taking ONE example to make a point and in time I will provide more in this blog, for the reader to appreciate the level of unabashed deception, I will use the case of a parent to rushes his child to a private hospital in an emergency, passing the fully staffed government accident unit along the way! Because the Child has Rs200K hospital coverage under the child’s Suraksha insurance card/plan.

The bill presented by the Private Hospital is Rs200,000 and the parent believes it is covered, not understanding, not receiving and not bothering to check the fine print of the coverage provided. The insurance company says that they can pay on Rs50,000 as there are certain items on the bill that this policy does not cover, and stating the reasons, pointing to the fine print, perhaps giving very reasonable explanations thereon, that will stand in a court of law.

So the Rs150,000 will have to paid by him, and he is now extremely agitated about how he is to find that money to pay the hospital bill. Now had he gone to the Government Hospital and had his child treated free, the most he would have been asked to pay would be some medications that he had to get from outside, perhaps some tests, and channeling the same doctor privately outside the hospital. The total he may have to pay will amount to about Rs30,000 including an attendant to stay overnight in the ward for a few nights.

Judge for yourself how true this case is and comment if you feel you have a point to elaborate in this debate. After all remember this plan has been launched without any consultation and what if this is a scheme to give some back door money to the GMOA to further their private wealth at the expense of the government, you and I know nothing about? It is called a transfer of resources from the public sector to the private sector, STEALTHILY!

It is sad we live in a Country with few who have perceptive skills to explain what our elected representatives get up to in the name of good governance or marapalanaya, or any other name for that matter as they are all at it, by our foolishness in giving them the tools to pull the rug from under us without us even knowing.

So let us remove ourselves from this false sense of security that this BOGUS insurance scheme offers and turns this parent into GRIEF, an innocent victim, and the Govt. will then ultimately lose credibility, unless they expand coverage at a further ruinous cost to the Treasury just to save face from their incompetent scheme.