Foreign women should not pay childbirth costs

Women who are not Faroese citizens are presented with a bill from the health authorities after they have given birth at a maternity ward.

MP Jenis á Rana said in Parliament yesterday that new mothers who have not been issued a residence permit in the Faroes receive a bill of at least DKK 22,000 to cover maternity ward costs.

He asked Sirið Stenberg, the Minister of Health, to formally confirm or deny this.

The minister confirmed that foreign women are currently required to pay when giving birth at the maternity ward. However, she added that this will change, but it will take some time to push the change through.

“The hospital law includes a clause which states that a person must have lived in the Faroe Islands for six weeks to qualify for full rights,” Stenberg said in her reply to the MP.

She wishes to amend this clause so that pregnant women are exempted.

It is, however, not a straightforward problem to solve, she added, because this section of the law is processed in Denmark.

“We are doing everything we can to change this as soon as possible so that all babies can enter the world and our country safely and free of charge.”

Translated by prosa.fo