The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net DEFICIENCIES within the public health care system need to be fixed first before any consideration is given to a 'national health insurance scheme,' a doctor telling Tribune Business that more than 85 per cent of Bahamians already benefit from free health care within the public health care system. As talk of a national health insurance scheme has resurfaced, well-known orthopedic surgeon Dr Robert Gibson said that while he does not oppose the idea of national health insurance, the Bahamas already has a form of national health insurance. He explained: "We have national health insurance already, over 80 per cent of the people are paid for by the public's purse. Why isn't it working? Before we even consider another scheme we should look at what we have now, find out what's wrong with it and fix that first. If we are already taking care of over 85 per cent of Bahamians from the public treasury, that's a national health insurance scheme but it isn't working. We can't provide the quality of care that people with private money can." One of the reasons for this he said was the difference in environment between public and private health care providers. "If you go to Doctor's Hospital you have people who have to be courteous because if you complain to much they get fired. In the Princess Margaret Hospital they just move them to the Rand or Sandilands or somewhere else. It's a different dynamic. My thing is let's look at the system we have, let's fix it, make it efficient and then we may not need all that. I'm not against national health insurance but we've had it." He noted: "It doesn't matter who you are, if you get knocked down and an ambulance picks you up and drops you off at Princess Margaret Hospital's doorstep nobody's going to ask you whether you can pay or not. They are going to pull you in and give you what you need and if you don't pay the bill afterwards no one is going to chase you down afterwards either, that's a reality of the place. At Doctor's they would resuscitate you, get you stable and then send you off to the public institution because the Good Samaritan rule says you can't turn a man away if he's dying. We have a system in place. We have a system of public health clinics which if run properly and expanded you can get community health care for lower level primary emergencies. There is no need to run to PMH if you cut your hand. There's a number of ways we can take what we have and make it more efficient." PLP leader Perry Christie has said that if his party wins the upcoming general election, it would move towards the implementation of NHI. The House of Assembly passed the National Health Insurance Act in 2006 but it was never enacted and the PLP lost the election in 2007.