By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

SENATOR Rory Respicio, D-Agana Heights, is urging the administration to bring StayWell back into the negotiating table, saying that being left with only one insurance provider reduces the government of Guam’s bargaining power.
Respicio said when StayWell unilaterally decided to pull its business out of GovGuam, the company “has created a monopoly for the remaining player, SelectCare, a situation that is unlikely to be advantageous for either our employees or our government.”
“As the only provider involved in the negotiations with the Department of Administration, SelectCare can virtually write their own ticket,” Respicio stated in a letter to Gov. Felix P. Camacho.
“While I don’t think SelectCare would go so far as to increase their rates arbitrarily, we both know that it is the presence of competition that makes businesses pay very close attention to every possible savings and cost-cutting,” Respicio said, adding that competition provides customers with more options to choose from.
The Democratic senator urged the governor not to allow StayWell to drop GovGuam without any justification.
Meanwhile, businessman Peter Sgro, president of the Hospital Development Forum, suggested that Guam study the Philippine government’s insurance model, which is aiming to have at least 5 million Filipinos or about 5 percent of the population, insured by the end of the year.
According to Philippine Insurance Commissioner Evangeline Escobillo, only 3 million Filipinos so far have taken up voluntary insurance, or insurance outside the Social Security System, the Government Service Insurance System and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
To achieve its 5 million target, the Insurance Commission plans to promote micro-insurance with the help of cooperatives and mutual benefit associations that cater mostly to small clients, such as associations of teachers, military personnel, farmers groups and cooperatives.
The commission has set a target to have 20 percent of the Filipino population insured by 2010.