“In 2010, there were 723 deaths in categories deemed avoidable in The Bahamas.” This according to recent media reports sourced from the Sanigest Report – prepared by Sanigest Internacional - a Costa Rican health care consultancy firm contracted by the Bahamas government to conduct a feasibility study into the implementation of some form of universal health insurance. The report also assumed that “ten percent of the estimated deaths are preventable through NHI.”

Preventable deaths and other modalities are a function of access, or wealth and diet (which affects the strength of the immune system and its ability to fight off diseases) responded health minister Dr. Perry Gomez, and not necessarily a reflection of the quality of health care delivered through the country’s public health care system.

As far as health infrastructure is concerned, six hundred and forty-seven more beds are needed to meet standard said the report; since then a one hundred bed critical care facility was constructed and added to the inventory of the Public Hospital Authority. Mini hospitals in Abaco, Cat Island and Exuma are in various stages of completion and additional hospitals for Grand Bahama and Eleuthera are on the drawing board so it is safe to conclude that the government is on the right path in addressing the country’s health care needs.

In a series of headline stories gleaned from the leaked Sanigest Report, the local media have highlighted for public education, the growing inequities in our health care delivery system that continue to adversely impact the poor disproportionately. This revelation further underscores the need for greater equity through systemic reform as a fundamental component of the social contract between the government and the people it serves.

For its part, the government of The Bahamas, much like many governments around the world, has determined that the policy solution to address this inherent social inequity is National Health Insurance (NHI). The Prime Minister and the Health Minister are both on record as saying – and I paraphrase - that in The Bahamas if you are poor, black and you get sick, quite frankly you die and his government is determined to change this paradigm.

The Prime Minister further said that “it is not if (his government will implement NHI), but when” and has targeted January 2016 as the implementation period of the first phase which is a proposed basic benefits package at a cost of about some $362 million. This phased in approach can easily take 10 years to be fully implemented at a total cost of over $600 million based on associated logistics and government exigencies. It is important to note that the government currently spends some $100 million per annum to insure thousands of public servants and upwards of $10 million per annum on a drug prescription plan that benefits over 26,000 Bahamians. This is in addition to expenditure in excess of $180 million per annum to deliver health care through the Public Hospitals Authority. This roughly $290 million comprise the existing public resources the Ministry of Health referred to in its press release earlier this week when it assured the general public that “the majority of the financing will come from existing resources in the health system.”

The Health Ministry has revealed that “currently, per capita healthcare spending in The Bahamas is over $2,300 per year, almost double other countries in the region,” but despite this high spending, “life expectancy is lower (in The Bahamas) than many including Barbados, Belize and Grenada.” There must be a shift in this paradigm.

“Universal Health Insurance” continued the Health Ministry “will focus on improving health outcomes while also producing annual savings which will reach $160 million in ten years.” This assertion is supported by empirical data and represents good news not only for the average Bahamian, but for employers as well who are saddled with the burden of increased employee health care costs.