Healthcare costs back in focus

A White Paper will soon be brought before the Cabinet of Barbados that seeks to address how healthcare costs in this island should be covered.

This revelation was made by Minister of Health John Boyce, who stated the importance of such a paper considering that $750 million dollars is currently spent on healthcare on an annual basis with the Government covering approximately $400 million via taxes.

Delivering the feature address at the official launch of Urgent Care Mobile at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) on Saturday night, Minister Boyce stated that only $150 million of the cost is covered through insurance, with Barbadians having to therefore pay for the remainder from their own pockets. He urged persons to consider whether this model of healthcare payment would be sustainable in the future.

“Our greatest concern is that insurance coverage et cetera only covers about $150 million of that, so that Barbadians pay out of their pockets in the region of $200 million…for their healthcare. The reason I share these statistics is because we have to constantly examine if these situations are sustainable.

“We listen to the interesting debate in the United States of America now and we can look back and reflect on the work done in Canada and in the United Kingdom in respect to the provision of healthcare and we recognize that we really have to urgently tackle the question of ‘How do we pay for healthcare going forward in Barbados’.”

He continued: “And in this regard, we of course have embarked on the development of a health financing project in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and we are moving towards the delivery of a White Paper to the Cabinet of Barbados very soon which indicates our initial position, but then offering it for discussion with stakeholders etc before we take a firm position as to how we envision healthcare costs being provided for in the future.”