President Mohamed Nasheed has reiterated the government’s commitment to corporatize health service delivery and said public-private-partnerships were crucial to bring the right efficiency to the health system.

He made the comments speaking at the meeting involving senior stakeholders for dissemination of findings on social determinants of health analysis and recommendations of national report on social determinants of health, held at Holiday Inn this morning.

Outlining the three main pillars of the government’s health policy, the President said corporatizing the delivery of health service was an important policy of the government to develop the health sector and meet the people’s expectations in volume and quality of health service they receive.

Other two important components of the government’s health policy, the President said, were providing health insurance for all and social protection programme.

On providing health insurance for all, the President said it was “more sustainable than trying to sustain inefficient public health delivery systems.”

“Health insurance for all will cost us Rf 600 million. Subsidizing and trying to prop up inefficient public services are costing us Rf 1.5 billion”, he added.

The President also said the people, especially those over sixty-five, have begun to see the benefits of the government’s social protection programme.

In his remarks this morning, the President said, despite the high proportion of the national income allocated to the health sector in the past, it had not been able to meet the demands and expectations of the people.

The President said this was mainly because while the incidences of lifestyle related non communicable diseases were increasing, “all our programmes, all our policies were very much focused and directed in trying to cure primary health issues – malaria, malnutrition and all sorts of transmittable diseases”

The objective of today’s meeting was to sensitize relevant senior stakeholders to examine the roles of different sectors in addressing social determinants of health.

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed also participated in today’s meeting.