Under the Parliament Privileges and Powers Act, the Petition Committee of the People's Majlis has decided to send an e-petition calling for the cancellation of expensive health insurance schemes for current and former MPs to the Majlis floor for debate.

The petition has garnered 7,225 signatures, making it the second most-signed e-petition. Consequently, the petition has received enough signatures to satisfy the requirements outlined in thresholds one and two of the Majlis e-petition regulations.

Following this, the Petition Committee debated the petition during a meeting held yesterday and voted to forward it to the Majlis floor for debate.

The law dictates that every Majlis member, their spouse, and children under 18 years of age must be enrolled in a medical insurance scheme providing medical treatment from the Maldives, SAARC countries, and ASEAN countries. Furthermore, the law specifies that anyone who has served as a Majlis member must be provided medical treatment under a health insurance scheme similar to that available to current Majlis members.

Because of this provision, they are also able to receive medical treatment in Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore using that insurance.

The petition—submitted for endorsement by social media activist Midhuam Saud, calling for the cancellation of members' health insurance—states that providing health insurance funded by public funds to lawmakers representing the public, when such coverage is unavailable to ordinary citizens, is not recognized by any mature political system. It notes that this is also not practiced by countries that are many times wealthier than the Maldives.

Studies based on the world's top ten economies show that there is no major country in the world that provides lifetime health insurance to former members, the petition adds.

The petition states that basic health insurance provided by a state must be extended to all citizens equally, at the same level, and under the same principles. Holding a specific position is not a valid justification for spending additional, superior, and costly health insurance out of the public's tax revenue.

Therefore, the petition requests that laws mandating health insurance from the Maldives, SAARC, and ASEAN countries for current and former Majlis members and their families be repealed; that all Majlis members be placed under the standard national health insurance scheme available to all other ordinary Maldivians; and that all necessary legislative amendments be made so that no special health benefits—unfunded for ordinary citizens—are provided to any Majlis member or family member at the expense of taxpayer funds.