With the announcement of the BZV management to stop the administration of the health care costs of PP-card holders and civil servants from the island government of St Maarten as of July 1, 2010, the government of Sint Maarten must consider an urgent solution before July 1, 2010.
We, the civil servant unions on Sint Maarten urge the Executive Council of St Maarten to transfer the Social Security Bank (= SVB) of the Netherlands Antilles to Sint Maarten, so that it will be the Executive Council and/or the Island Council of Sint Maarten that can decide upon how the SVB SXM has to administer the social security in Sint Maarten. Since the signing in April 2010 of the transfer of all legislation, tasks and responsibilities from the central government to Sint Maarten, the island government here in Philipsburg now has the right and the responsibility to decide who and how the current health care costs administration of the island government guarantee cards should be handled.
For the basic health insurance packages in St Maarten the government and the island council of St Maarten can decide before July 1st that SVB SXM not only administers the health care costs of the sickness/accident insurance for private sector workers, but also the sickness insurance for civil servants (FZOG) and private sector pensioners (SVB 60+), the PP-card holders and the active civil servants on the island of Sint Maarten can be brought under the administration of SVB SXM like is happening already in the island of Curacao. The content and the conditions of the health care insurances can be determined now in Philipsburg and can be different from the decisions being taken in Willemstad.
In a meeting with the Executive Council of St Maarten last week Thursday concerning the problems facing FZOG and BZV cardholders we the civil servant unions on St Maarten have proposed to transfer the FZOG and SVB funds and the FZOG and SVB organization to Philipsburg before 10-10-10. With the problems facing the island civil servants and the PP-card holders now that BZV stops the administration per July 1, 2010 we propose to accelerate this transfer of the FZOG and SVB to Philipsburg and take the decision to let the SVB SXM administer also the island guarantee cards. Because the ExCo announced a postponement of the starting date of the National health Insurance untill 1-1-2012, the unions have asked the ExCo to consider a phased equalization of the health care packages from the FZOG-pensioners and the island government workers and PP-card holders now before 10-10-10. We have illustrated the need to do this this with the following example.
The civil servant pensioners with an FZOG card still has to go to the SVB here in SXM who have to fax everything to the FZOG office in Curacao. Our pensioners still have to experience a decision taking process which takes too long. Where pensioners from FZOG (apart from taxes) have to pay 10% of their pension for the sickness insurance premium, 5 times more than all other workers in our society, two executive councils have already decided to eliminate this discrimination in the health care package per 10-10-10. By transferring the FZOG and the SVB to SXM these decisions can be implemented now.
JOINT PRESS RELEASE ABVO COUNCIL OF PENSIONERS, ABVO ST MAARTEN, WICSU/WIFOL AND WITU