Government forms joint venture with Allied to start national health insurance scheme

The Government of the Maldives formed a new company, Aasanda Pvt. Ltd., as a joint venture with Allied Insurance, to launch a national health insurance scheme which shall cover all the citizens of the Maldives.

The Ministry of Finance and Aasanda signed the agreement on the scheme in a special ceremony held today at the Artificial Beach. While the Minister of Finance Ahmed Inaz and the Minister of Health Dr. Aminath Jameel signed the agreement on behalf of the Maldives, it was signed by Managing Director Mohamed Shafaz for Aasanda.

The shareholding of the joint venture is set at 40 per cent for the Government and 60 per cent for Allied Insurance.

Currently, there is an insurance scheme by the name of Madana under which all citizens are allowed to pay annual premiums and get health insurance. However, with Aasanda replacing the Madana scheme, all the citizens would be allowed to get medical treatment free of cost without having to pay a premium up to a ceiling of MRF 100,000 per annum.

The President was present at the signing ceremony held today evening, and addressing the ceremony, he said that the new health insurance scheme was being introduced as new economic and financial policies of the government had shot the government income up by a wide margin.

All the hospitals and health centres run in the Maldives by the National Health Services Corporations, the ADK Hospital, and the IMDC Hospital in Hithadhoo, Addu City would provide free health services under the new scheme, according to leaflets published today by the Company.

The Scheme is not limited to local health services only. Aasand Website has reported a number of selected hospitals in India and Sri Lanka have also subscribed to the scheme. They are Kims Hospital, Nims Hospital and Lords Hospital, Anantapuri Hospital, Cosmopolitan Hospital, Chitania I Hospital and Regional Cancer Center in Trivandrum; Amrita Institute of Oncology in Cochin; Lanka Hospitals, Navaloka Hospital, and Asiri Hospital in Sri Lanka.