The vice president of religious organisation Jamiyyath-al-Salaf, Sheikh Hassan Moosa Fikry has claimed the government’s ‘Madhana’ healthcare scheme resembles an insurance program and is against the principles of Islam.
Sheikh Hassan said that the Madhana health insurance scheme “was not a balanced system” and represented
”a loss for both the people and the government.”
He also claimed that the Madhana scheme was not organised according to the Islamic banking system.
‘Madhana’ is a scheme run by the government that provides up to Rf100,000 (US$7782) of medical treatment for members, in return for an annual fee of Rf2000 (US$155).
”For example, I pay the government Rf2000 to take part in the Madhana program, and if I do not get ill that year, wouldn’t that be a loss of Rf2000 for me?” Sheikh Hassan said.
He claimed that the State Minister for Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed once wrote a religious article about insurance, which on the first paragraph stated that health insurance was not allowed for Muslims.
However President of the Adhaalath Party Sheikh Hussein Rasheed Ahmed said that all health insurance programs were allowed under Islam, with the exception of self-insurance, and that Madhana was “a help” offered by the government to its people.
”I’m not saying this in response to what Salaf has said,” he added.
Religious scholar Sheik Ilyas Hussein also claimed that only self-insurance was prohibited for Muslims.
“If the Madhana health scheme was done as business then it might be a problem,” he said. “If it is done as charity it would be allowed.”
Spokesman for the Islamic Ministry Sheikh Ahmadhulla said he could not comment on the issue at the moment “because this is a religious matter” and he did not have the right to give religious advice.
Permanent secretary for the Health Ministry Sheena Moosa said that she was also unable to comment as the issue was a religious matter, but claimed the Madhana scheme was not modelled on health insurance.
”We do it as charity for the benefit of people,” she said, adding that the government did not invest any of the money received it received through the scheme.
”We keep all the money as a separate fund,” she explained.
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