A leading healthcare professional is questioning the government's ability to fund its proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) as the country continues to face financial challenges.
Doctors Hospital Health System's (DHHS) President Barry Rassin told Guardian Business that while NHI may be a way for all residents to receive healthcare, he maintains the cost of healthcare in The Bahamas is too expensive.
"Healthcare is a very expensive commodity. The question is how do you pay for that. It's a very expensive thing to do," he said. "How do you phase that into a country that already has financial problems?"
"The National Health Insurance plan is a way to cover everybody in the country, but it is extremely expensive to do and I do not know where the government would find the funds to do that.
"Right now, if you just look at the government numbers for Princess Margaret Hospital, how much is spent at the hospital, you can really get a feel for the numbers. It's already coming out of our pockets as taxpayers."
In recent years, Rassin said he has noticed an increase in the number of people that have no form of healthcare insurance, which continues to pose a challenge for the medical facility. Rassin said declining health among the population at large is the real driver of rises in costs.
Therefore, he is encouraging more insurance companies to include wellness programs that emphasize preventative action as part of their coverage.
"We are trying to look at the long-term benefits of staying healthy. If you don't get as sick, then you don't have as high a claim to experience, therefore your health insurance premiums go down.
Because people are claiming so much, the cost of healthcare is so expensive not because any healthcare organizations are raising their prices," he told Guardian Business.
Sports-based chiropractor, contemporary medical acupuncturist and partner at the Blake Integrative Medical Clinic Dr. Stephen Truszkowski said the government should look at more preventative measures, but he still believes that having NHI is "really valuable".
"Huge problems are usually difficult and expensive to treat. Being Canadian, it's one of our rights to have access to healthcare no matter what you do. Coming here and seeing people loaded on to ambulances and asked questions like do you have health insurance is very foreign to me.
So I think it could be a very positive thing," he said. Dr. Vanessa Ingraham, who is a naturopathic physician and certified yoga instructor, said if medical practitioners are able to address an imbalance in someone's body before it becomes a diagnosis, it could save the government money when it comes to implementing National Health Insurance.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Perry Christie said he wants to have "all of the facts" on National Health Insurance before the anniversary of his second year in office so the government can determine if the plan is feasible.
"When you don't have health insurance, you could die," according to Christie. "That's a serious statement.
I told my minister of health that we passed health legislation in our first term and at the very least I want to have before my second anniversary all of the facts before the government, so that we are able to make a decision on a cost effective basis whether we are able to proceed with it and in what form."
Christie said the country spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on healthcare, and the government cannot afford initiatives that are not supplemented by contributions from citizens.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
