JERSEY’s Health Insurance Fund – the pot of money that helps pay for GP visits and prescription medicines – is expected to shrink sharply over the next four years, raising fears it could be exhausted in the early 2030s.
The fund, which is financed through Social Security contributions, subsidises primary care for Islanders.
But during a public hearing yesterday, members of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel warned it is forecast to fall from £90 million in 2026 to around £60 million in 2029.
Deputy Sir Philip Bailhache cautioned that, on this trajectory, “it will have run out completely by, I don’t know, early 2030s.”
According to the government’s proposed Budget, the fund is expected to decline from an opening balance of £101.3 million in 2026 to £61 million by the end of 2029.
Social Security Minister Deputy Lyndsay Feltham admitted the figures were a “matter of concern” but stressed that decisions about the fund must be taken in the wider context of health financing.”
“We are not running the Health Insurance Fund down to zero. We are looking at health funding as a whole,” she said.
She added that while her personal position is that “everybody should have free access to primary care”, this has not been adopted as policy and rejected claims that the government was deliberately running down the fund to support a shift towards free GP appointments.
“I’m very pleased that we now have free access to GPs for children and full-time students,” she added. “I don’t think anybody should be prevented from seeking access.”
The hearing also examined the Social Security Fund, which is supported by contributions from employees, employers and the States grant, and pays for pensions, sick pay, maternity benefits and healthcare.
The government’s proposed Budget said that the Social Security Reserve has “grown significantly in recent years” and proposed what it describes as “sensible, temporary reductions” to the States grant to “allow resources to be reprioritised.”
Deputy Bailhache described it as a “staggering sum of money” that was being diverted away from the fund.
He said: “A quarter of a billion pounds is being removed from or could have gone into the Social Security fund and is being used for other purposes.”
In response, Deputy Feltham said advice showed this would have only “a very, very minimal effect” on the fund’s long-term solvency – and argued the move was needed to meet immediate pressures in health, children’s services and childcare.
“The measures that are in this Budget won’t have a long-lasting negative impact on the fund,” she said.
“When I looked at the things that needed funding, I felt that actually our taxpayers would want us to meet those needs. They want us to deal with the emergency services… People want access to more affordable child care, and those are the things that we’re able to deliver because of the change in the States grant.”
