Health is a subject we tend to talk about only when we need it. Now that the various budget measures have started to sink in, one wonders why any government should, in fact, force the citizens to pay more taxes. We do not, however, appreciate the outflow of those taxes.
The health ministry is one that comes to mind as its benefits are silent, but appreciated by the many who use them. A short reference is made to various items from which we benefit at one time or another. If we do not benefit directly, then some of our relatives do. Going by Labour leader Dr Alfred Sant’s recent standards on family trees, nearly everybody is family in Malta and therefore we all benefit.
The list that your readers should know is that government provides nearly 9,000 people with telecare. Some 53,000 meals on wheels were delivered to people’s houses. Some 1,200 people received some service or another from the handyman service provided. Some 2,305 have benefited from the home help service. Homes for the elderly have some 700 residents between them, while St Vincent de Paule on its own has 1,024 residents, and a further 100 or so beds will be put on line as soon as the expansion project is completed.
Going down the list of government services, we have some 100,000 people who attended the emergency department and another 78,000 who received health care services. 28,000 operations were carried out (only one case was quoted by Dr Sant in his reply speech) and 250,000 people received service in the outpatients department.
78,000 people were entitled to, and received, free medicines. 140,000 went to the various health centres and were attended too.
Just looking as these figures and comparing them to Malta’s population, one cannot but comment favourably on this performance.
But where does all this money come from?
Back to square one, I suppose. The tax we all should pay. Evading tax can only put pressure on such medical and social services that we all appreciate.
In comes another aspect, directly connected to better medical services. People are living longer, no one complains about that surely. But that increases the pressure on pensions, as the ratio between people working and paying their social security contributions and the elderly is increasing.
All European countries are faced with this situation.
For instance, in its pension reform Germany has cut into the present pensioners monthly allowance.
Being the government that it is, with a social conscience, the new Nationalist government is proposing in its white paper to leave pensions intact, and people around the age of 55 would still retire under the old arrangements. The younger blood is given due and advance notice, and this to safeguard their own pensions in the future.
What comes to mind after such a run down of statistics and benefits, is that the middle classes, the new buzzword recently coined by Labour, are the ones who benefit most, and this through a Nationalist government. People in need have long been taken into consideration by the Nationalist Party, as this is
second nature to us.
We do take things for granted, now that we live peacefully.
Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP