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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 Over the past several weeks I've watched a debate rage in the newspapers over whether we need national health insurance, or NHI, for all or we just continue with only 30 percent of us having private insurance while the rest use the public services available or spend our hard earned money to pay for private care.
This debate seems to be a little like Joaquin to me too - going nowhere fast and causing a lot of damage. I hope this letter can help provide some relief to the mess we've been left with.
Let's get this straight so we are all informed of the realities. The majority of Bahamians- the 70 percent without health insurance, like my husband - are going to have to live with the decisions and consequences made. I think my situation highlights what’s wrong with keeping things as they are. I’m lucky, in some ways, because my employer pays 100% of an insurance premium for me. But - which really pains me - my children and husband aren't included in the plan. We can't afford the extra $400 a month that would cost and still pay our mortgage.
I have a deductible of $1500 which means I have to pay for almost all my care myself until I spend that first, and only then my insurance kicks in. Last year we spent $2,100 as a family between my daughter breaking her arm, our son having his regular scheduled visits and two asthma attacks that made us take him to the ER, my husband's visits and drugs for hypertension and my visit to my Gynecologist.
My employer tells me they paid $4,950 for my health insurance. Which means that my family cost over $7,000... but still if my husband had a heart attack or stroke he wouldn't be covered. Like I said, we can't afford another almost $5,000 to buy insurance for him and the kids. But somehow it just doesn't seem right that we have to choose between either having a house or having health insurance.
And others in my church choir feel the same way. One of them was telling me how her mother had private insurance for 20 years through her employer. When she turned 65, and retired, the premium for her private health insurance was going to be over $10,000! That was almost all her pension. So again, we have to decide between private health coverage and subsistence?
My doctor says she isn't sure if NHI will be good for her but I don't understand how she could feel good about a relationship where she asks someone to pay $100 for a service she provided but they only pay her $50 dollars. Three months late. That ain't right either.
My husband doesn't want to go for a check up because we know if something is wrong we will have to pay out all our savings and leave our kids without the chance of going to college. Lord help us and keep us healthy. Not sure if that is worse than telling me I am only covered for the first 1 million then I am on my own. So the more expensive it gets the more I gotta pay?
Another fact from my life that I’m sure many face. I had another job offer at a company and I would really like to move to. But because I have diabetes, I think the insurers call it a pre-existing condition, none of my drugs or tests for that would be covered for the first two years even though they still are offering me insurance. We can't afford that either so I have to stay in my current position. Under NHI, let’s get it straight, there are no pre-existing conditions anymore.
I hear that NHI will at least provide me and my family with free essential health care at any private or public doctor that signs up. That is a lot more than we are getting today.
I think even if I did have to pay an extra bit to NIB but that covered my children and my husband too - it would probably be less than we pay now but we'd get more!
Plus I hear NHI would not drop me when I retire or raise my premium when I get sick - and I can change jobs and keep my coverage.
Let's get this straight. Don't sound so bad to me. I wouldn’t be listening to those big insurance companies and rich doctors who want to keep their millions, while the rest of us Bahamians are struggling to make ends meet.
Signed
A Concerned Bahamian
Disclaimer:
The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his/her
private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of
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