PM opens new health insurance company, inspects work at Credit Bank

Damascus, SANA, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi inaugurated Monday a health insurance company and inspected work at the branch of the Popular Credit Bank in Abo Rummaneh neighborhood in Damascus.

Medical Care Company “is a value added service in medical expense management,” al-Halqi said at the inauguration, hoping that the “solid props” on which the new company was based would contribute to overcoming all the odds that have faced the national health insurance project since its inception in 2010.

He cited some missteps at the beginning of the project due to an array of challenges, that have been compounded by the repercussions of the crisis facing the country since 2011.

A main obstacle, he said, has to do with the technological field, citing basically the need for networks to link the provinces and connect service providers (doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, laboratories and radiology centers) and the necessary networking requirements of telephone and electricity.

Other challenges have been posed by the sabotage acts of the armed terrorist groups, leading to essential infrastructure sustaining heavy damage.

To achieve the end of overcoming all the challenges, the government has pledged to provide all forms of support, particularly by the ministries of Finance and Health, to make the national health insurance project a real success, al-Halqi said.

Following the inauguration, the Premier made a visit to the Popular Credit Bank where he inspected the work mechanism, stressing that Syria will soon go through a promising stage of investments in the reconstruction process.

In a statement to the reporters, the Premier said the government is studying a possibility of launching loans for faltering small and medium-sized projects that have been suspended due to terrorist acts.

H. Said