Although the new administration is committed to implementing the long promised National Health Insurance (NHI) within its first year in office, Minister of Health Dr. Perry Gomez admitted yesterday that the government does not yet know how much such a scheme would cost.
Gomez told The Nassau Guardian that the price tag is "undoubtedly" higher than initially projected.
"We have money in the first 100 days allotment to begin to look at certain aspects of the program that we worked out, which is now about eight years ago," said Gomez before touring Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) as minister of health.
"But we have to review the costing and so on before we launch further."
Under the previous Christie administration, the Blue Ribbon Commission on National Heath Insurance -- which Gomez headed -- projected that the plan would cost around $235 million annually.
But healthcare costs have skyrocketed since then and insurance and healthcare experts predict such a plan would cost significantly more than that previous projection.
In its Economic Review column published on March 7 in The Nassau Guardian, Colina Financial Advisors Limited (CFAL) projected that based on historical data and future projections, the cost of a national healthcare plan going forward would be in the region of $500 million to $750 million -- equivalent to nearly half of the country's recurrent expenditure.
Former Chief of Surgery at Princess Margaret Hospital Dr. Duane Sands also estimated recently that the scheme could cost up to $750 million to implement, placing a further burden on Bahamian taxpayers.
Experts have said repeatedly that any drive toward NHI must be accompanied by an investment in healthcare facilities.

Critical Care Block
Gomez toured the Critical Care Block of the hospital yesterday. The block is still under construction.
Public Hospitals Authority Managing Director Herbert Brown said the hospital's bed shortage issue would be addressed when the Critical Care Block is completed next year.
Brown said the unit is more than 20 percent completed, on schedule and on budget and to date just over $23.5 million has been spent on its construction.
He said the total construction cost is projected at more than $64 million and more than $31 million will be spent on state-of-the-art equipment.

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