In his 2023 Budget Address in the House of Assembly, Premier and Minister of Health, Dr Ellis L Webster, announced that his administration would be providing free healthcare to citizens 70 years and older, starting this year. To that end, the government is moving ahead with developing a plan to implement a national insurance healthcare scheme.
Speaking on Radio Anguilla’s programme, Talk Anguilla Rebranded on Wednesday, January 11, the Premier talked about his plans for establishing the national health insurance scheme.
He said: “We want to get to a point of national health insurance. What we anticipate is that everybody would be covered, and certainly, those who are working would have to pay some premium.”
Dr Webster noted that the projected cost of healthcare “runs at just over $40 million a year,” and stated that the government currently allocates “a subvention of over $20 million to the Health Authority of Anguilla.” He indicated that the current government subvention of over $20 million would form “part of a premium that goes into the National Health Insurance.”
He also stated that the government would engage in talks with other health insurance companies to determine how a national health insurance scheme would impact their businesses.
“We have been talking with consultants regarding how to work it out. We have met with all the private insurance companies here in Anguilla to discuss it.
“At first, there was some trepidation as to how it would affect their businesses, but we were able to discuss how it would work. This year, we are working on a plan as to how we would implement it,” Dr Webster said.
