Regional Director of Generali Worldwide and Bahamas Insurance Association (BIA) spokesperson Tina Cambridge said she seriously doubts that the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme will come to fruition this year because there is still a lot of consultation to be done with stakeholders. Cambridge is one of several stakeholders who have recently suggested NHI will not be implemented by the end of 2016.
On the heels of the first meeting between the NHI Secretariat and the Universal Healthcare (UHC) Stakeholder Advisory Council, Cambridge told Guardian Business on Friday that the council, KPMG Advisory Bahamas and NHI stakeholders might meet in the next two weeks to further discuss considerations about what the timeline for NHI would be.
She said that previous meetings did not result in any indication of when NHI would be implemented.
On Thursday, president of the Bahamas Pharmaceutical Association (BPA) Michelle Finlayson said that it would be "very unlikely" that NHI would be implemented this year. In fact, Finlayson estimated initial implementation would not take place until January 2017.
The government was silent on a new date in the recent budget communication, and when asked if she thought rollout of NHI in some form in 2016 was a possibility, Cambridge was blunt.
"I doubt it seriously. I think there's still a lot of work needed to be done. The group is just now meeting to start the consultation process, and to lend to what needs to happen. I would highly doubt that we are able to see any appreciable advancement within the rest of 2016," she said.
"Remember that all of our members are certainly calling to get the whole process right so that we can get the best possible framework for The Bahamas, and that is going to be a journey. That is certainly not going to happen overnight," Cambridge said.
"All the things that still need to happen to lay the ground work, I think, would continue by virtue of the establishment of the UHC Stakeholder Advisory Council. But, there is still a lot of groundwork that needs to be done before the next phase can come into play," Cambridge added.
The UHC Stakeholder Advisory Council was created by the NHI Secretariat. NHI Permanent Secretariat Peter Deveaux-Isaacs said it would ensure continuous collaboration on attaining universal healthcare in The Bahamas, and also that it is designed to help the Christie administration hit its NHI Bahamas timelines.
Xian Smith, Guardian Business Reporter
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
