The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business

Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Insurance Association (BIA) chairman Emmanuel Komolafe said yesterday that, while changes to the insurance legislation are being driven by the push to roll out National Health Insurance (NHI), it is “disappointing” that other major issues impacting the industry and requiring revisions to the Insurance Act and Regulations have been largely ignored.

“Our first observation is that the consultation period of 10 business days is extremely short,” Mr Komolafe said.

“This is quite unusual and definitely out of character for the Insurance Commission of The Bahamas which is normally guided by international best practices and standards. It is possible that the regulator may be acting on directives based on the aggressive timeframe for the implementation of NHI established by the Government. We trust that this does not foreshadow the manner in which the ICB will be treating the proposed public insurer preferentially when compared to private health insurers.

“We would have appreciated if those referenced policy and legal issues that have been affecting policyholders, insured individuals and the entire industry for several years had been treated with the same sense of urgency and at least incorporated in the present suggested amendments,” he said.

“Over the past five or six years, the insurance industry in The Bahamas, through the statutory Insurance Advisory Committee and the Bahamas Insurance Association, has been seeking to have amendments made to the Insurance Act and accompanying regulations to address major issues impacting the sector,” Mr Komolafe added, noting that the BIA had met and communicated with the Government during this period.

“We have had discussions with the Minister of State for Finance, Minister of Financial Services, Financial Secretary and Insurance Commission of The Bahamas among others. Unfortunately, all of our efforts have been for the most part futile to date and it appears that matters affecting the insurance sector, which is a significant part of a challenged financial services industry, are not seen as a priority. We are hopeful that the Government will now take this opportunity to simultaneously incorporate revisions, that have been outstanding for about five years, into the Amendment Bill.”

Komolafe said that, based on an initial review, there are a number of proposed amendments to the Insurance Act solely to accommodate the NHI scheme.

“One provision in the draft Amendment Bill that stands out is that the existing requirement for insurers to sell insurance products through an insurance intermediary will not apply to the NHI plan,” he said. “

This confirms that the concerns raised by the BIA and Bahamas Insurance Brokers Association vis-à-vis the NHI scheme were not only warranted, they were valid. We will review the proposed amendments in more detail and provide comprehensive feedback to the ICB and relevant authorities in due course,” he noted.