The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The National Health Insurance (NHI) Secretariat was yesterday said to have “gone back to the drawing table” over the legislation that will facilitate the scheme’s implementation.

Damara Dillet, the Secretariat’s attorney and legal consultant, told a Bahamas Society of Engineers (BSE) luncheon that the draft Bill was being revised to incorporate changes suggested by doctors and healthcare professionals.

The draft NHI bill had been scheduled for public release this past Monday, one week after public registration for the scheme commenced.

But Ms Dillet said : “We do hope that, in short order, hopefully within the coming days, we are in a position to release this Bill for individuals in both the stakeholder community, as well as the wider public, to take a look at, review, provide comments and allow us to incorporate where necessary those provisions that we may have overlooked.

“At this juncture we really anticipated having that draft Bill issued to the public. However, we had some stakeholder input over the last week which has caused us to revisit the draft that we have, and incorporate some of those changes, with the view to producing as close as perfect a draft to the public.”

Ms Dillet added: “We had a workshop with the medical community over the weekend, and during that workshop there were some concerns that were raised that caused us to go back to the drawing table to see how best we could incorporate some of those.”

The Christie administration plans to roll out a primary healthcare for NHI this April, with the more expansive $400m million Vital Benefits Package to follow some time within the next year.

NHI’s primary care phase is projected to cost is just over $100 million for the first year, according to project manager, Dr Delon Brennen.

“The first three months will be paid for by the Government, with no contributions,” said Ms Dillet. “What they are going to do during that particular period is undergo auditing and processing processes, because what is envisioned is persons who could not access the system at a a particular level, and are able to access the system at this new level, we need to understand exactly what the healthcare needs of the public may be.

“Once they undergo that particular process, then they will be in a position to say how contributions will be rolled in, at what level, and at what cost.We are very mindful of what the spending levels are, what the necessities are for the Bahamian people, and the cost of those necessities backed against certain financing needs of the NHI.”