Mrs. Jacqueline Bryan-Niles
The National Health Insurance (NHI), to provide accessibility to quality healthcare for various persons in Anguilla, was officially launched on Monday, November 3, at the Annex of the National Bank of Anguilla, where the NHI Office is located.
The NHI is an initiative of the Anguilla Social Security Board whose Chairman is Mr Alkins Rogers. Speaking in his capacity of Chairman of the Board, he gave some pertinent background information about the decision to embark on the establishment of the NHI. He said that in 2010 efforts were made by the Social Security Board towards increasing benefits to contributors and other persons. As a result, National Health Insurance was one of the benefits decided on. Following a visit to the Turks and Caicos Islands to look at the NHI there, Chief Minister Hubert Hughes encouraged the Social Security Board to seriously pursue the matter. There were other fact-finding visits to a number of other Caribbean islands. “We actually wanted to launch the NHI in 2013, on the same day, 34 years ago, when the Social Security Scheme was established. Unfortunately around that same time there were some issues with our banking system so we put back the launch for today.”
An address by Chief Minister Hubert Hughes, the Minister responsible for Social Security and the NHI, was delivered in his absence by Minister Evan Gumbs. Mr Hughes affirmed in that address that “the NHI will benefit many Anguillians.”
He stressed the following: “Social health protection plays a significant role in poverty alleviation. Coverage reduces the indirect costs of disease and disability such as lost years of income due to short and long-term disability, care of family members, low productivity, and the impaired education and social development of children due to sickness.”
The Chief Minister further stated: “As a NHI project, this programme will focus on primary healthcare and provide coverage for our seniors. This will result in significant reductions in the cost of health, improved access and ultimately improved health.”
Mrs Jacqueline Bryan-Niles, Chairperson of the NHI Steering Committee, stated in part: “The National Health Insurance Scheme, under the Anguilla Social Security Board, is an added benefit for contributors and non-contributors to the Social Security Scheme. Currently, the Social Security programme only covers areas such as sickness, maternity, disability, but does not include medical coverage for basic attention and medical needs. The roll-out of this new benefit is preceded by a pilot project for one year. Like any other programme, it is often wise to do testing on a small scale before fully implementing a programme on a large scale. Therefore, the decision was taken to begin a National Health Insurance Pilot Project and to focus on primary healthcare and preventative care.”
Mrs Bryan-Niles explained that the idea was to educate all persons to be better able to care for themselves to prevent diseases, and certain ailments, that could lead to secondary cases which would be even more costly and life-threatening in some instances.
“A number of chronic illnesses have been identified in our society today,” she continued. “These include hypertension, diabetes and cancer and it is imperative that we educate our people as to the dangers of such, and how to prevent them from occurring through simple preventative measures which NHI refers to as primary healthcare.”
She explained that there was a need for much fine-tuning for the NHI pilot project. In the meantime, she pointed out that “persons in the target groups, under the project, would appreciate the medical support received under the NHI while we seek to raise the bar on quality healthcare on the island, and to educate our people to take greater responsibility for their health.”
The NHI Pilot Project Manager is Dr Lanny Hobson who gave an account of how the system will work. “Our goal is universal accessibility to quality healthcare and all Anguillians have a fundamental right to quality healthcare,” he told his listeners.
Meanwhile, a number of commitments have been made under the National Health Insurance system. They include some of the following (listed in the launching programme’s brochure): “The NHI will endeavour to purchase on your behalf high quality services; it will seek to purchase healthcare that is affordable for all; it will ensure the provision of a comprehensive range of services; the NHI will work with providers and the Ministry of Health to shape services around the needs and preference of individual patients, their families and community needs; and NHI will work with the healthcare providers to ensure that patients receive medical care when needed.”
The addresses were followed by the signing of the Declaration of Commitment to the NHI by the Chairman of the Social Security Board, Mr Atkins Rogers; the Chairperson of the NHI Steering Committee, Mrs Bryan-Niles; and the Acting Chief Minister, Mr Evan Gumbs.
The ribbon to the NHI Office was cut by Ms Cubrecia Webster, Administrative Assistant, Social Security; and the Vote of Thanks was delivered by Ms Maglan Lewis, Deputy Director, Social Security.
