HEALTH Minister Dr Perry Gomez.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH Minister Dr Perry Gomez said yesterday that the first phase of National Health Insurance, primary healthcare, is still on pace to be rolled out in January 2017.
His statement comes mere weeks after he said NHI might have to be “slightly” delayed because of Hurricane Matthew, which damaged public buildings, including clinics, in October.
Some believe the Christie administration’s timeline for NHI implementation is too ambitious. The NHI Secretariat announced last week that the period for stakeholders and interested parties to submit proposals to manage NHI’s public insurer has ended, with three proposals having been submitted.
The secretariat will now evaluate the proposals and submit a recommendation to Cabinet.
It’s unclear how long this process will last, and officials were not available for comment yesterday.
Under the original target schedule for NHI that was released in August, the preferred proposed bidder was supposed to be selected on October 28 while negotiations with the bidder was supposed to be completed by November 25.
However, both dates have passed and officials are only now moving towards evaluating the proposed bids, raising questions about how other items in the queue have been affected.
The secretariat is also focused on completing regulations for NHI, a process that was expected to be completed earlier this summer.
It’s now unclear when this process will end but it is expected to involve multiple rounds of consultations between stakeholders, officials at the Office of the Attorney General and Cabinet.
In addition, Dr Locksley Munroe, president of the Consultant Physician Staff Association (CPSA), said yesterday that potential service providers have not yet started the process of enrolling in the NHI scheme.
“They are making the promise of January rollout but they will look for reasons that it can’t work,” he told The Tribune. “Enrolling of providers has not begun. There’s still lots that we don’t know and I think it’s very unlikely that we will have a January rollout.”
Comments
Economist 7 years, 4 months ago
Gomez has done nothing to clean up the PHA or our health system which can't account for upwards of $100 million of our money each year.
How can we as a people agree to something that a man who loses us $10,000 dollars for every hour that he has been minister recommends?
NHI is suicidal. for The Bahamas.
Honestman 7 years, 4 months ago
The PLP knows the country can't afford it. They also know it is entirely a "sales gimmick" to suck in the F grade average voter base they are appealing to.
ohdrap4 7 years, 4 months ago
I do not recall being asked whether I agreed. Were you asked?
Greentea 7 years, 4 months ago
The Chief of Staff for the hospital walked off the job and is waiting for Brown to apologize, the hospital cant seem to account for money already given to it- to the tune of MILLIONS, Bahamian unemployment is sky high, BPL can't keep the flickin lights on at the hospital, or anywhere else, the availability and distribution of medication is confusing, VAT killing us, people still haven't recovered from the hurricane and they are about to introduce another tax burden with no gain or clear return? The PLP don't have a clue WHO they dealing with. If they were scared about the warm-up march last week- watch out for January. PLP you have woken the anger in a quiet, retiring people. Nobody in the world like a Bahamian who always willing to give people a chance- but ya'll about to get bun.
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