The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A report that will detail implementation costs for the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) initiative could be completed by month’s end, the Minister of Health said yesterday.

The report is being prepared by Costa Rican consultants, Sanigest Internacional. The Government has announced that it intends to implement NHI in January 2016. The programme has been proposed as a means of providing universal access to affordable healthcare for Bahamians.

“Too large an amount of our people either lack healthcare, are underinsured or unable to get health insurance due to pre-existing conditions,” said Dr Perry Gomez, who added that the absence of an NHI plan causes “too much inconvenience to far too many Bahamian people”.

Dr Gomez, who spoke =at a special workshop organised to begin consultation with stakeholders, confirmed that efforts to implement NHI in 2016 were on target.

Parliament passed an NHI Bill in the final months of the previous Christie administration, but no regulations were ever finalised. Dr Gomez said, however, that plans to implement such a plan went as far back as the Pindling administration.

“The difference with private health care is that they are in the business for profit. You see very often, for people who’ve reached retirement age, the premiums that insurance companies charge, they can’t afford,” Dr Gomez said.

“So they have to make the choice between how they pay for their food or how they pay for their health. That’s the difficulty with private health care; so many people have no choice. They can’t afford it so we need another form of insurance, and that is where this comes in.”

Dr Gomez added: “Universal health care is the access to quality health services, but the definition goes beyond that. It’s access to a healthy living environment, and services which promote the health of the entire population”