INCLUDES government employee unions, the fight against the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) fee hike.
The unions marched GEMS with a 9.5% wage increase at the start of the year. The fund cites corruption, cost overruns, and paying high fees to GEMS members for health care, as the reason why they are increasing the amount. GEMS initially raised revenue by 9.8% at the start of the year, then dropped to 9.5% after employee complaints.
The unions want to reduce the amount that was raised and rebuild the board of this organization.
Mr Simon Hlungwani, who is in the committee against the increase of fees under the Cosatu union federation, revealed that they received answers after submitting a list of complaints to the march aimed at GEMS.
“We are busy deliberating on these responses and the next move we will make to put pressure to lower the fee. GEMS wants a meeting at the end of the month,” he said.
He said another move they are making is punishing legal advice by forcing GEMS to bend the horn.
“Our lawyers are on top of the issue, they are working on it now. We are in contact with other unions that are not under Cosatu regarding this issue,” he said.
He urged the members not to be discouraged but to continue to strengthen the fight against the increase of money.
Last week, GEMS revealed to Parliament that it is investigating 400 cases corruption opened to doctors and other health care providers. These cases affect the cooperation of the members of this fund and those who provide health care.
GEMS complained that annually, it loses between R3 billion to R9 billion due tocorruption, abuse and misuse of medical aid.
The officer in charge of corruption in GEMS, Mr. Ishmael Mohapi, said that last year they investigated 399 healthcare providers, who stole R1.3 billion from this fund last year alone.
“We have filed 413 cases with the police in the past years, the investigation is going fast. We have been able to recover R11.7 million from this fund,” he said.
Annually, GEMS said it spends R67 billion on expenses while members pay R65 billion annually.
“The costs paid to doctors, private hospitals and specialists are high. In that way, we had to raise money to meet the rising costs every year,” we said.
The Minister of Public Works and Administration, King Mzamo Buthelezi, revealed that he rejected the increase in money made by GEMS.
Buthelezi said that he is not the one who approves the increase of money but it is done by the GEMS board. GEMS stated that negotiations with labor unions are ongoing regarding the increase in fees.