By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Perry Gomez said the government “must not fail” with its proposed implementation of National Health Insurance because the country needs it.

However, there are some in the private sector who are still unsure about the government’s January 2016 timeline, with Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation (BCCEC) CEO Edison Sumner telling The Tribune yesterday he doubts the implementation date is feasible.

During his opening remarks at the Ministry of Health’s Universal Health Coverage Symposium at the British Colonial Hilton, Dr Gomez said that the government has adopted a “we cannot fail, we must not fail” motto in its third attempt at the implementation of NHI.

He added that the need for universal health coverage is evident in the statistics associated with healthcare in the country.

“The world is expecting this of all countries so that we better improve the quality, the equity in healthcare for all people of the world,” he said.

He said that international publications referencing universal healthcare coverage have indicated that “a wide cross section of countries ranging from low, to middle to high income” have shown “demonstrable positive impacts on the quality of life years and GDP” following the implementation of NHI.

“There is absolutely no reason to believe that we in the Bahamas are to expect anything less than a positive impact in the local scenario where there is considerable room to improve healthcare services,” he added.

Dr Gomez told The Tribune last week that officials would not reveal the details of the first phase of the scheme until the 2015/2016 budget has been presented in the House of Assembly, however he said the Christie administration “will move forward with gusto” to ensure Bahamians are well informed of the details of the government’s proposed plan.

At the time, the North Andros and Berry Islands representative suggested that the government was on track to meet its self-imposed deadline of January 2016 to rollout the first stage of the health care programme.

In response, Mr Sumner said as far as he knows very little information has been made available to date.

He said if the government has hopes of making the January 2016 implementation date successful, the private sector must be completely engaged.

“January might be a challenge because we don’t have all the information yet, we don’t know what we are accessing. We don’t know for sure what the benefit packages (are going to be), we don’t know for sure what the financial mechanism is going to be,” Mr Sumner said.

He added that the BCCEC is working to ensure that they and those that they represent, employers, stay involved in the discussions surrounding NHI.

“It is important to get the private sector involved and we think the largest private sector representation has to be the Chamber of Commerce and the insurance sector, and the medical profession, of course, as well.

“What we have done at the chamber is we organised and developed the NHI review committee, that committee has on it representatives from the insurance sector, has medical professions on it and, of course, the employers represented in the chamber.”

He added that following the implementation of value added tax, implementing another dynamic shift in the country is going to be a challenge for the government.

“If they want to see it done successfully they must engage the private sector completely in this, especially if they are looking for us to collaborate with them and cooperate with them in getting it all done and if that does not happen then I think we are going to have a challenge.

“There is talk and I think there has been some recommendation from Sanigest that they are looking at a payroll tax. I rather call it a payroll contribution; but even if you are looking at a payroll contribution that is not going to count for the entire NHI outlay and if that is not going to count for the entire outlay where is the balance of that money going to come from?

“These are things that we need to know and not only from the private sector, the general populace needs to know because if your salary is going to be taxed in the future you need to know that and need to plan for it.”

Last October, Costa Rican consultants Sanigest Internacional presented options for financing universal health care to the government.

Among the many options included in the report, of which The Tribune has a copy, there was a suggestion for a payroll tax ranging from one per cent to five per cent to finance NHI.

The report also explores other revenue-raising options, including levying a high-end “sin tax” on alcohol and tobacco. The report also estimated that the scheme could cost between $362 million and $633 million annually depending on the terms of the packages made available.