More than half of the Bahamian population has no form of health insurance, backing up what many have speculated since the National Health Insurance debate began several years ago, recently published data from the latest census has revealed. The census details made public last week by the Department of Statistics shows that of the 351,461 people living in The Bahamas when the 2010 census was conducted, 163,029 or 46 percent have some form of health insurance. A total of 2,955 (less than one percent) did not state whether or not they have insurance.
That means that 185,477 people or nearly 53 percent have no health insurance at all. Several of the most sparsely populated Family Islands have the highest rate of people without health insurance. Nearly 80 percent of the 277 people living on Mayaguana do not have any form of insurance. Similarly, in Bimini where the population is 1,988, and Ragged Island where the population is 72, 76 percent of the people on both islands have no form of health insurance. In Acklins 70 percent of the 565 people living there have no insurance.
In New Providence, Grand Bahama, and Abaco - the three most populated islands - the number of people without insurance ranges between 50 and 60 percent. On the capital, a total of 120,226 people (49 percent) either have individual insurance, group insurance or both compared to the 124,227 who don't have either. Of the 51,368 people in Grand Bahama, 22,283 have some form of health insurance, while 28,702 (56 percent) don't. And on Abaco, which has a population of 17,224 people, 6,492 have health insurance and 10,586 (61 percent) are without insurance.
On other islands, including Andros, the Berry Islands, Cat Island, Crooked Island, Eleuthera, Exuma, Inagua, Long Island, San Salvador and Rum Cay, the percentage of people without insurance ranges between 55 percent and 70 percent. While the report doesn't provide the reason why so many Bahamians do not have insurance, another table in the census report suggests that some households may not be able to afford health insurance. The Household Size and Total Annual Household Income Report shows that there are a total of 102,758 households across the country.
Of those, 5,919 make $5,000 or less annually; 7,227 make $5,001 to $10,000; 8,621 make $10,001 to $15,000; 8,074 make $15,001 to $20,000; 28,260 make $20,001 to $40,000. Another 17,473 households make $40,001 to $60,000 annually; 9,482 make $60,001 to $80,000; 4,996 make $80,001 to $100,000 and 6,602 make over $100,000.
The report indicates that 56 percent of the households bring in $40,000 annually or less; 38 percent bring in $40,001 or more; and 5.9 percent or 6,104 did not indicate household income. According to the survey, 87 percent or 89,615 live in households with no more than five people. While just over 12 percent or 13,143 live in households with six or more people. Of that number, there are 424 households with 12 or more people, according to the report. Nearly half of those households make between $20,001 and $60,000 annually, the report states.
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