In the end, the plan was diluted during the parliamentary process of drafting the
National Health Security Act. The compromise agreed among the contending
groups was to create a single administrative unit to manage the three existing
schemes. This signalled a fundamental ideological shift: the rationale for merging
the funds was to create a single system within which equity could be easily
managed and achieved, while the aims of a single management unit were to
reduce duplication and improve the efficiency of managing the systems, but not
necessarily to reduce inequities between the schemes.
Even though the compromise was incorporated in the Act, it continued to provoke
significant opposition. To accelerate implementation, the NHSO recommended
the establishment of a coordination committee covering the three public insurance
schemes, which was set up in April 2004. Its remit was to coordinate and
support harmonization in non-controversial areas, while postponing consideration
of benefits packages and funding levels. The committee’s objectives were