Deputy Director of the Dominica Social Security, Mr. Augustus Etienne says plans to set up a national health insurance scheme should be pursued.
In April 2017 Government introduced a pilot National Health Insurance Program to be administered by Social Security.
In an interview with national focus marking Social Security’s forty sixth Anniversary this month, Mr. Augustus said following Hurricane Maria plans to establishment a national health insurance scheme took a back seat.
“It was supposed to be a forerunner to a full-fledged national health insurance programme to cover the entire population. That pilot was done to take care of young mothers and children initially under the age of three, but that was subsequently amended to take it up to the age of sixteen so basically to cover children of school age. So if a child under the age of sixteen were to have a condition and they are unable to access services locally within the primary health care system or anywhere locally, and they have to be referred overseas, they will be able to receive assistance under that programme,” Mr. Etienne explained.
Mr. Etienne says a national health insurance scheme would go a long way in providing much needed financial support in time of emergency. He referred to the frequent requests for financial assistance by those with health emergencies, as an indication of the need for that type of safety net.
“Government had contracted the Pan Health American Organization (PAHO) and the Health Economics Unit of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad to provide consultancy and technical assistance towards us moving towards the implementation of a National Health Insurance Programme. But that has not gotten much traction since Hurricane Maria. It is something we think still needs to be done because we still see a number of persons approaching Government for assistance to access medical assistance overseas because when health conditions appear, they are very costly and the times we need to access the services, we haven’t got the monies,” Mr. Etienne noted.
The DSS Director went on to state that with a national health insurance scheme in place, citizens would be entitled to benefits in times of emergency.
“But even with the National Health Insurance Pilot that we are administering, he number of requests that keep coming and the difference that we see it is making for those persons, we see the need for it to happen and it is something that we wish that can go back on front burner for discussion and something that we can pursue quickly. But our people importantly have to recognize the need for them to contribute to those things,” Mr. Etienne added.