The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet Minister yesterday reiterated Government pledges that it would do nothing to “disrupt’” the economy as it rolls out National Health Insurance (NHI), suggesting it would adopt the private-public partnership model pioneered over Value-Added Tax (VAT).

“The registration and improvement  of existing  facilities is the first phase,” Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, said.

“As we are doing that the conversation will continue with the Bahamas Insurance Association (BIA) and other stakeholders as to the next steps.”

He added: “I think the Prime Minister said it best; that we are not going to do anything that will disrupt the economy. We have the model with the VAT implementation where there was an extensive consultation with the private sector and their groups to the point where the Government made some concessions, and we ended up with  what we believe was a smooth implementation. 

“I believe tha when you listen to the private sector and medical community, they all say they believe in universal access.

“So if they  believe in it and we believe in it, it’s just a matter for sitting down and making sure that we can do something that everyone can live with.”

    The Government plans to begin a phased roll-out of NHI from January 1, 2016.

“What we are going to do the first phase is we are going to register people, and we are going to put a tremendous amount of effort into improving the current product,” Mr Halkitis said.

“That would be expanding the hours of the public clinic.

“For example, instead of closing at 6pm in the evening they would stay open later so that people, if they have an incident at night, don’t have to go to PMH; they can go to the clinics and so we are improving the environment and services being offered at those.”

   He added: “We are in the advanced stages of developing the plans for the renovation of certain sections of PMH to improve services there, and some of that work should be definitely underway and - in some instances - completed before we get to the next Budget period.

“Following that we would get to the roll-out of the more extensive benefit package.

“We are making available the resources necessary to do the improvements to the facilities.”

    The Bahamas Insurance Association has been vocal in expressing its concerns over the roll-out of NHI and its impact on local insurers.

The BIA recently noted that  its $895-$965 million National Health Insurance (NHI) cost estimates may be a “conservative” 20 per cent under-estimate, its chairman Emmanuel Komolafe telling Tribune Business that the BIA figures did not include co-payments by insured patients to doctors and hospitals, which could account for one-fifth of Bahamian healthcare spending.

He emphasised that the $262-$332 million disparity between the BIA’s figures and those supplied by the Government’s NHI consultants, Sanigest Internacional, “warrants independent investigation” - as the Christie administration has agreed to do.