Ron Lam urges gov’t to pay for micro to medium enterprises’ NAT

Lawmaker Ron Lam has delivered a spoken inquiry calling on the government to ease the burden on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) who currently need to pay for the nucleic acid tests (NAT) of employees, according to the list of professions considered as key groups for pandemic prevention.

The lawmaker said that the two-way system enforced by health authorities in mid-August, whereby some NATs are provided by the government and others by companies, has flaws and the guidelines “did not clarify which key professional groups should have their expenses borne by the government or by the companies.” 

He added that he has received many complaints from MSMEs saying that public services have conflicting advice on the issue.

As result, he noted, many small companies are being forced to bear the cost of NATs for their workers, a reality that has “greatly increased their expenses and [financial] burden.”

According to a later explanation, the government said that the difference between the two systems is related to the degree of risk, with the government covering the cost of NATs for workers in key high-risk groups, while the costs of workers with lower risk is borne by companies. This explanation does not convince the lawmaker, who says that such measures do not comply with the National Health Commission guidelines from which, local health authorities say, the measures came.

According to Lam, the government should pay for tests it makes mandatory, and individuals should only have to pay for voluntary tests, for example, for the purpose of border crossing.

The same lawmaker noted that, according to information from the health authorities, 188,000 people are currently included in the professional key groups, a figure that represents over 50% of the entire employed population.

Lam fears that if the government does not cover these expenses, the burden on MSMEs will become too great, creating more problems like those already reported where companies are asking the workers to pay for their own NATs to be able to attend work.