Private hospitals refuse CLICO insurance cards

Mar 06, 2009 News

… demonstrate lack of confidence in President’s utterances – AFC

By Gary Eleazar

The Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) Guyana insurance cards are being refused at private hospitals, with some having adopted this course of action weeks ago. Others did so just after the company was placed under Judicial Management.
In an invited comment, Alliance For Change Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, said that the inference to be drawn from the position adopted by the hospitals is that they have no confidence in the guarantees “spouted by the President”.

He said that the statements are obviously being seen as not sound and without validity.
The Commissioner of Insurance must now meet with the hospitals to guarantee that bills covered under the medical cards issued by CLICO (Guyana) will be paid.
Ramjattan said that unless this happens it is hardly likely that the private hospitals will be accepting the cards, given that they would be providing medical services unsure of whether they will be paid.
Meanwhile the Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, Robert Corbin, yesterday told media operatives that with every passing day the revelations surrounding the financial difficulties of CLICO (Guyana) and its associate companies in the Caribbean raise more questions than provide answers and solutions. He emphasised that the recent revelations by the Prime Minister of the Bahamas that the Regulator did not find any evidence of the alleged $6.1B invested by CLICO (Guyana) in CLICO (Bahamas), and the subsequent responses by officials in Guyana, provide no comfort to policyholders and affected persons and institutions.

“The paranoid responses by President Jagdeo to genuine concerns raised by affected persons appear more like political propaganda, rather than a professional approach by a responsible government to a serious financial crisis…
“The assurances by the President at press conferences that all valid CLICO claims will be met, without stating that these claims will be guaranteed by the Government of Guyana, mean absolutely nothing, having regard to the track record of the Jagdeo Administration with respect to the honouring of their promises.”
The PNCR official added that in the meantime several persons remain vulnerable to excessive loss in the absence of a formal statement by the court-appointed Judicial Manager, “who has obviously been negligent in performing her previous duties as Regulator”.

Until a complete audit of CLICO (Guyana) is done, no one would be able to know the extent of the financial difficulty of the company, hence the party was calling on the administration to provide in the National Assembly an unequivocal guarantee to policyholders and investors that all their financial claims will be met.
The Party also called on the Minister of Finance to explain how the objective would be achieved.