In the Fiscal Year 2010 proposed budget, the MOH will be receiving $300,000 less than the previous year’s budget. To address the issue, there will be a possibility that MOH will also begin to cut services or let some people go. “Which I don’t want to do,” explained the Minister.
“From our perspective, I have to argue always and advocate for health. That is my job,” said Kuartei. “Given the constraints, we’re going to live within our means, but we will find ways to restore the budget cut so we can maintain the same services that we have this year.”
According to Kuartei, the MOH has done a lot of internal adjustments to become more efficient and more expedient in terms of running its programs. “So there is an internal savings, but that savings is being consumed right now because of high prices of commodities, drugs and medical supplies, as well as the utilization of services.”
Not only that, said the Minister, the hospital’s admission rate keeps on increasing because more and more people are becoming sickly.
“I think there’s a way to deal with,” said Kuartei. “One is for the whole government of Palau to really sit down and look at ways to raise revenues that will not put more burden to its people. That includes opening Palau’s market place for businesses.”
The other is to begin to privatizing certain services. “Right now we are looking at privatizing the services of our vehicles,” said Kuartei. “The morgue has already been privatized.”
Grants are a big help, too, according to Kuartei. The MOH is eligible for many grants “But we should know that first it takes a whole lot of manpower to manage grants to make sure that we comply with the requirements. Second, there is a danger in building a healthcare system that relies on grants.”
Kuartei said, the Public Health can’t continue to run being funded by grants. Palau needs to look at how it can pay for its public health on its own. “We really need to be careful to apply those grants that would develop long-term infrastructures,” said Kuartei.
The minister said he wishes that the MOH had more revenues, more money so that it can continue to provide the same services for the people.
