Staff writer
Labour minister Utoni Nujoma has called on Social Security Commission (SSC) to plan and establish the National Medical Benefits Funds (NMBF).
Nujoma made this appeal during the SSC Annual Strategy Review session in Windhoek recently.
In a media statement last week, the ministry said the Social Security Act (No. 34 of 1994) indicates that the fund shall provide medical benefits to every
employee who is a member of the fund, except if such member is a member of any other medical fund or scheme approved by the minister on the recommendation of the commission.
“The members shall also be subjected to comply with other provisions of the Act,” said the labour ministry.
Nujoma encouraged SSC members that although discussions are underway within the government about the need for universal healthcare, the commission cannot lose sight of its duties to fulfill the mandate of establishing the national medical benefits fund.
According to him, the fund can be a component of the universal health care system.
On the same platform, Nujoma urged the SSC to keep on embracing the principle of solidarity and eradicating inequality, emphasising that the youth, women, disabled persons, the unemployed, underemployed, informal workers, and subsistence workers should be key beneficiaries.
