The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Please allow me space in your newspaper to express my views on the impending National Insurance Bill.

One can only read with amazement a forty page proposal for NHI that was released for stakeholders and public opinion only days before it is actually presented to parliament.

The draft bill for universal health care is a great plan if the government is genuinely concerned about seeing Bahamians get the level of healthcare that we all deserve. 

However, if you take a moment to process the proposal and look below the surface, you will see that the plan will exacerbate health issues for Bahamians. Among many concerns expressed such as longer waiting lines, unequipped system, paying for service that Bahamians already have access to, increase taxes, the government can’t be trusted as managers of NHI, etc, it is well understood why many Bahamians and healthcare providers are discontented with the NHI plan.

For one, it is absurd for patients to be tied to one particular doctor for an entire year as stated in the proposal and will have to receive approval from the authority to re-select a physician.

What happens if a patient wants to change doctors within the year for reasons believed to be good to him or her but does not get approved by authorities? There shouldn’t be any limitation on choosing doctors; patients should have the rights and the option of choosing different doctors for their care and treatments.

Additionally, clause (e) in article 27 states: “Health care providers must agree to any fee schedule or other payment rate set by the Authority for participation in the Plan.” First of all, the government already contracts doctors in private practices into the public system. For this reason, this clause can only be implying that doctors have to agree to have a ceiling placed on what they can earn in their private practices. This is absurd for after the many long years of studying and training to become a medical professional and having been established as a physician to now be capped.

Finally, it was disappointing after the perusal of the Bill to find no mention of how the plan will be regulated nor how much Bahamians are expected to pay after the initial phases since the first three phases are said to be no tax to Bahamians.

If the government is truly concerned about Bahamians’ healthcare then instead of rushing to parliament with this proposed draft in its current form, it really should take more consultation to make this initiative work well.

AMJ

Nassau,

March 10, 2016.