What democracy

Peter Smulik a reader in Somerset West has something that he wants to get off his chest, and it's something we have been trying to get to the bottom of for some time - GEMS and freedom of choice.

The Government Employees Medical Scheme administrators are a happy bunch because it seems that state employees are being forced to join GEMS, and it appears that this is retrospective to 1 July.

And just in case there were some members who thought they lived in a democracy, new employees or even the longer serving employees can't join an open scheme. Well, they can join, but they won't receive the government subsidy. That's called a Hobsons choice.

It appears that there is uncertainty for members who are already with an open scheme and want to move to another open scheme. It appears the HR departments within the various government organizations are unclear about what is, and what isn't allowed.

What is apparently clear is that there will be no broker involvement in any decision-making for employees, despite the fact that there are five options within the scheme, and only HR departments are allowed to get involved.

Editor's thoughts:
* We have asked the FSB and the CMS to respond to our questions, and we will
provide the answers as soon as we receive the answers. Either way we will keep you posted.
* One wonders whether an analogy can be drawn between the medical scheme brokers and what could happen to intermediaries operating in other areas if the call is heeded to build products that supposedly don't need advice, or have advice built into them?