Minister of Health, John Boyce, making a point yesterday afternoon.
A portion of the audience at yesterday’s lunchtime lecture.
AS Government continues to look for a sustainable health-care funding solution for this country, Health Minister, John Boyce, has revealed that Cabinet could soon be reviewing the merits of a proposed National Health Insurance Fund.
He made the disclosure as he delivered yesterday’s Astor B. Watts Lunchtime Lecture Series at the Democratic Labour Party’s headquarters, George Street, St. Michael. The Minister of Health indicated that while the Government of Barbados is committed to the funding of our public health care through taxation, it recognises that health-care costs are on the rise and there is therefore a need to find workable solutions. To that end, Boyce said that his Ministry, together with the Ministry of Finance are working to develop a National Health Insurance Fund, which would help to guarantee that even as those costs increase, the entire burden of providing for the costs would not lie necessarily with the taxpayers, but would be part of an investment fund for those who are working and for employers to participate in.
To that end, he said the Ministry of Health has made its final submission to the Cabinet’s Subcommittee on Social Policy on the proposed Fund and the next step is for it to be “shaped” and delivered to Cabinet for consideration.
“So that we look at in the future, designing some kind of funding mechanism, whether it be contributed to by workers and employers, and the level of contribution, etc. can be for debate,” he said.
He made the point while noting that his vision for such a Fund is along the lines of the existing National Insurance Scheme, with contributions from employers and employees.
“I am beginning now to digress into my own thoughts, not necessarily the technical team at the Ministry, but certainly it has to be the kind of investment fund which will grow with time, over the years, and become like the National Insurance Fund – a very strong basis on which we can then draw for special health-care services,” he told those gathered.
The Minister spoke to the need to find sources of financing for health care in this country, as he explained that health care is a major expense for Barbadians in general and the Government, with 55 per cent of the close to $750 million spent on health care coming from Government. Of that figure, Minister Boyce said, $150 million alone goes to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the remaining figure goes towards the polyclinics and geriatric facilities.
The Health Minister’s comments came as he noted that employers, via health insurance, contribute $36 million and households in this country are also contributing to a hefty portion of the health-care expenditure, with the figure in the region of $285 million.
“The estimate is that of that, probably $100 million is taken care of by insurance by private citizens. But the rest of the spend is the one that of course is of great concern, when people have to take their cash, their savings, etc., to help to provide that care. Yes it is a necessity, but at the same time one of the tenets of the whole adoption of universal health coverage and universal health access is one which does not leave our citizenry in a state of poverty because of having to spend their last penny on health care,” he said.
To that end, the Minister maintained there is work to be done to put together alternatives to health-care financing. (JRT)