840,000 people paid
by Social Security Fund

Government is $1.5 billion in arrears

National Social Security Fund (NSSF) services benefited 840,000 individuals last year.

Hospitalization and medical coverage averaged $835 per capita.

The number of active companies subscribed to the NSSF increased to 57,000 last year, up from 48,000 in 2014.

The number of individuals subscribed reached 615,000, and taxi drivers 50,000.

Sick and maternity fund revenues dropped from $760 million to $577 million from 2016. The deficit reached $126 million in 2017, with the total accumulated deficit reaching $1.3 billion.

“The deficit recorded is due to the increase in the cost of hospitalization. Demand on medical services is also increasing, and new technologies are entering the hospitals which are more expensive,” said Adel Olleik, Member of the Board at NSSF. The growth in health expenditures increase around 18 percent annually, he said.

The family compensation fund had a $34 million surplus. Revenues from the fund were $246 million, dropping around 20 percent compared to 2016. However the fund still has a deficit, which stands at $150 million.

End-of-service revenues hit $1.1 billion, and expenditures approached $524 million. The cumulative balance in this fund is $8.9 billion.

According to Olleik, the NSSF can reduce expenditures by $100 million by purchasing cancer treatment drugs directly from multinational pharmaceutical companies, bypassing distributers. Savings could be also achieved by prescribing generic medicines rather than the more expensive originators.

The inspection department at NSSF annually audits around ten percent of the companies enrolled in the fund, collecting on average $37 million from companies that do not fully disclose the exact number of its employees or their exact salaries.

According to Olleik, the government’s debts to NSSF are around $1.5 billion.