Universal access to health care for the Organisaton of Eastern Caribbean States was top priority discussion as OECS health ministers met for the second of two meetings on Thursday, October 13th.
While Director of the OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement Service, Francis Burnette, focused Wednesday’s meeting on the issue of member states meeting their financial obligations to the PPS, incoming chairman of the Council of Health Ministers, Dominica’s Hon Minister for Health, Dr. Kenneth Darroux, continued discussions on universal access to health care on Thursday.
“You heard us speak about health insurance. For many years now we have introduced the topic [exploring] whether we can introduce health insurance at a sub-regional level to make it easier for our clients to travel from island to island where specialized care services are established.”
The Hon Minister suggested that each island specializes in a care center from which citizens of all member states can benefit.
Head of the University of the West Indies, Health Economic Unit, Dr. Stanley Lalta, made a presentation at the meeting on national health insurance in the OECS countries. He says while the health insurance scheme should be fast tracked, it must be cost effective.
He further explained that while a national health insurance scheme may have a few challenges there are several benefits.
“Persons don’t always have to go to the United States [for treatment],” he said. You have Cuba; you have Panama; you have Colombia; you have Martinique and you have Barbados. But how do you compare value for money in all of these in order to ensure that you get the best benefit for the patient? The benefit of working together means that if twenty patients are going for real advanced cancer care, then there is benefit to the countries [OECS countries] as a whole instead of benefit to one individual country.”
Hon Darroux says it’s a new and exciting time for health in the region with the introduction of several new health ministers. As chairman, he hopes to bring his experience to the discussions.
Meantime, Dominica is moving ahead with the idea of a national health insurance scheme. At the last budget sitting, a five million dollar allocation was made for a pilot project for health insurance for single mothers.