S.S.B. addresses concerns over Nat’l Health Insurance Plan
The new Social Security Card and the upcoming National Health Insurance Scheme has been the subject of controversy and public confusion over the past week. In response the Social Security Board issued a statement late this evening saying a new card would have been instituted even if there was no plan for a National Health Insurance Scheme. The S.S.B. says the Health Insurance Plan is an option considered by the government as part of its health sector reform program in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank, I.D.B., to provide an improved, equitable, sustainable health care system. At the moment there is no comprehensive list of the illnesses and conditions and the amount Belizeans will be required to contribute has yet to be determined. The Social Security Board says as soon as they have worked out the contribution and benefits package details they will bring it to the public for consultation. On Thursday night Social Security Board General Manager Narda Garcia appeared on “One on One” with Dickie Bradley and said the N.H.I. will not come on stream for several months and that contrary to what some might believe the scheme is not a new initiative but was proposed and researched by the previous government.
Q: “Are you saying everybody in the country, children, adults, workers, unemployed?”
Narda Garcia, General Manager, S.S.B.
“Everybody.”
Q: “How will you enforce that?”
Narda Garcia
“How will we enforce that? Well they will see the need for it, so eventually you will come to get it. In addition to that what we felt is that the database that we will gather from the whole registration process would have helped us to enhance data needed for the National Health Insurance, which is a proposal before government, which has been a proposal before the past administration. Successive governments have looked at this as an alternate financing mechanism.”
Q: “The U.D.P. proposed National Health Insurance?”
Narda Garcia
“Definitely. Most of the studies were done through that administration so we are only coming on from what they left. Again most of the studies were done from 1993-1998.
We are looking, Dickie, at percentage of an insurable earnings; it is not going to be percentage of straight salary. We at Social Security work with an insurable earnings; we are looking at a maximum of three hundred and fifty dollars per week and we’re looking around. That’s not final yet… between four and five percent of that insurable earnings.”
Q: “Four and five percent made of both what the employer and employee receive?”
Narda Garcia
“Yes that’s a total of four or five percent.”
Q: “How much does the employee will be called upon to pay… roughly one percent, two, no more than three, two and a half?”
Narda Garcia
“I think the proposal on the table now is for the employee to pay slightly more because when you insure that person you will insure him and his dependents, meaning his family.”
Q: “So it’ll be slightly more than who?”
Narda Garcia
“Than the employer.”
Q: “So roughly what would be the ratio? He’ll pay three and the employer pay two or he pay two and the employer pay one or something?”
Narda Garcia
“Yeah.”
Social Security Boards are responsible for contracting health care services and providing universal coverage in several other Central American countries including Costa Rica and Guatemala. Under the N.H.I. the function of the Ministry of Health shifts from providing health care to monitoring and evaluating its delivery and monitoring the N.H.I. They may still be responsible for the running of those hospitals, which are not autonomous. The scheme will be piloted on the southside of Belize City and in Orange Walk in April.
