The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Health Insurance Project Manager Dr Delon Brennen said yesterday that while signing on to NHI is optional, if the government decides to tax to fund the scheme, “contributions will be mandatory for everyone.”

In an interview with The Tribune, Dr Brennen said if persons decide to opt out of NHI, it will not “affect the entire pool” because whether they decide to use the system or not, they will still be required to pay.

Last week, well known physician Dr Duane Sands said NHI is “doomed to fail” if the government abandons plans to make participation mandatory for all Bahamians and legal residents.

He explained that universal health coverage programmes required the broadest possible participation to work.

However, Dr Brennen said whether persons decide to sign up or not, the plan will work because contributions, by the way of tax, will be mandatory or the government will fund the scheme. Officials have yet to confirm how NHI will be funded.

“What we are saying is, if you want to get the benefits of NHI, you have to sign up, you cannot just show up and expect to get the benefits. But if you decide you have private health insurance and you are not going to sign up, or you decided to pay out of pocket, that is up to you, no one will put you in jail because you didn’t sign up,” Dr Brennen said.

“Now people are concerned that the plan will not work if everyone is not in the plan, that is not the case because if the political electorate decides that there are going to be contributions required or a tax, then everyone will have to pay. That’s the mandatory part. If you decide I don’t want to sign up for the service, but you are paying for the service, then that really is your choice because people do it all the time with NIB. People pay NIB all the time and they don’t claim anything. So for NHI, you are mandated to pay the contribution even if you don’t sign up for the service.”

Dr Brennen also admitted that a final decision on whether the public will be required to pay contributions has not yet been made. However, he said, if there is a tax, it would most likely be through “employer, employee contributions.”

On the issue of whether NHI’s implementation will be delayed, Dr Brennan said at present there are no plans to postpone the system. However, he said, it is still a possibility.

“We are currently working with the providers and with insurance companies to get them on board and understand what it is that we are asking of them. We are going through a negotiation to say what the final rates will be and what the final model will be, once that is completed then we will be able to move into enrolment. As of now, there is no delay, it is not to say that there can’t be but as of now we are doing what is necessary to get to those phases. Is there a possibility that it may be delayed? Yes. Right now we are still moving along on a track that we can get services delivered in a timely manner.”

The government initially said NHI’s primary healthcare phase would be introduced in April.

Last week Tuesday, Minister of Health Dr Perry Gomez said a delay in NHI’s roll out was “likely”. However when asked about this the next day, Prime Minister Perry Christie did not want to speak to a timeline, but stressed that his administration was focused on getting it right.