The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Public Service Union President John Pinder said yesterday the union is “very concerned” that the government intends to reduce the benefits of some civil servants once National Health Insurance (NHI) is implemented.

Mr Pinder told The Tribune that while he has heard nothing official from the government on NHI, he has been reliably told that uniformed branches in particular will only have basic healthcare coverage.

“We have been told that the benefits that civil servants enjoy will be changed. This is particularly not fair to persons in the military forces and they have the BPSU’s full support,” Mr Pinder said when contacted for comment.

“If the government is only offering primary care that means they will still have to buy other private insurance which means they will not be saving anything.”

“If something catastrophic happens, they will not be covered. Now if the government plans on doing this in order to keep insurance companies happy that is fine, but the government needs to say something about it. We have not gotten any of the details and this is all still up to speculation but it is unfair if the government expects to cut the insurance of those who really need it.”

Mr Pinder said the union is drafting a document on NHI to present to the government “very soon”.

NHI is expected to be launched in January 2016 and the government has said it will be phased in over a five-year period. The Christie administration has allocated $60m for NHI in the current fiscal year.

According to government-hired Costa Rican consultants Sanigest, the scheme could cost up to $633m annually if implemented as a comprehensive package. On the low end, NHI could cost around $362m.

The proposed scheme and its cost have raised concerns from various areas of the medical profession and the insurance industry. Yesterday, pharmacists met representatives of Sanigest at the Ministry of Health for a presentation on the procurement of drugs and are due to have a further meeting on NHI early next month.

Recently, Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez said the government was likely behind on its targets for NHI implementation, but insisted it would catch up.

However, this prompted leading surgeon Dr Duane Sands to criticise the government for its tardiness in meeting its universal healthcare coverage objectives and blamed it on “piss poor planning and piss poor preparation.”

Dr Sands also accused the government of no longer focusing on improving the system, but rather on achieving political points.