NHI pilot project starts in October
When the proposal for a mandatory national health insurance system was introduced earlier this year, it was turned into a public relations nightmare for its author, the Social Security Board. Since that time little has been heard from NHI until today, when the Ministry of Health officially launched the NHI pilot programme on the southside of the Belize District. While the details of the scheme are complicated, the concept is fairly straightforward. Right now poor people receive hopelessly inadequate health care at under-resourced public facilities, while more affluent Belizeans use their money to purchase higher quality health care directly from private doctors or through intermediaries like insurance companies. Under NHI, workers will pay increased payroll taxes and the money will be used to allow all Belizeans, employed or not, to receive a certain level of care from specified private facilities. What the pilot project, set to kick off on October first, will determine, is how much care can be delivered for how many dollars. Minister of Health Jose Coye told the gathering, consisting largely of health care professionals, that while there is much fine tuning ahead, one group would definitely feel better under NHI.
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“Let me state emphatically that although this is not a poverty alleviation programme; this health sector reform will have a major positive impact on the poor. As you are aware, in many instances the poor are restricted to low quality services, and if they venture into the private sector, they are likely to incur large expenditures without the assurance of quality. This reform programme will significantly raise the quality of care available for the poor and lessen their financial burden by the pooling of resources through a single purchasing mechanism.”
The six month pilot project and related health sector reforms will be financed by an 8.8 million U.S. dollar loan from the IDB, a 4.6 million dollar loan from the CDB, a 1.5 million dollar grant from the European Union and 2 million U.S. dollars from the Government of Belize. Coye promised that a series of consultations would be held with all stakeholders, including medical professionals, consumers, NGOs and insurance companies. Depending on the results of the pilot project, an amended version of the scheme would then be implemented nationwide, at which time deductions would begin coming out of workers’ paychecks. A public information campaign will soon be inaugurated to let people in the pilot area know how to register and receive benefits. That area includes all of Belize City south of Haulover Creek and all of Belize District south of the Western Highway.
