The BMDA petition remains open - Royal Gazette

Published Dec 14, 2019 at 8:00 am (Updated Dec 13, 2019 at 11:28 pm)

Patients 1st is a weekly column where the Bermuda Medical Doctors Association answers your questions about the proposed Bermuda Health Plan 2020 and how it may impact you and your family.

It is now over a week since the Government closed its public consultation regarding healthcare reform.

The Government has categorically stated that they will “not do a U-turn from the unified/single-payer finance system” despite the overwhelming requests from the population to not rush their decisions.

If approximately 7,500 of Bermuda’s residents signed a petition against the unified system, this represents around 12 per cent of our entire population; it also represents around 20 per cent of the working population stating to Government their disapproval.

One in five members of the working population indicated they are “not in favour of Government having a single-payer system”; one in five said, please do not rush this.

Your “public consultation” does not technically have to end — we live in a democracy.

The petition remains open for this reason.

Which bring us to the two questions most asked of Patients1st this week.

1, Who is actually in favour of the health scheme?

2, What can those that are against it still do in a democracy?

We cannot answer the first question without sounding biased but, outside of the Government, we have not seen a whole lot of people vocally supporting the unified health financing scheme.

So let’s focus on the second question: what can you do now that your request for delaying public consultation was denied?

A simple approach is to write to your member of Parliament and let them know how you feel.

You could also contact your employer’s human resources department and ask them specifically how will this impact you and then ask them to get a letter from Government confirming that the new plan will not result in fewer benefits for you or in a higher cost for the same benefits.

You have a right to know that your contract with your employer is not being put at risk.

We look at the very sad case recently in the news where the current Standard Health Benefit did not cover Dandre Outerbridge, a young Bermudian who fell ill while away.

The “new” plan has the same flaw. It does not guarantee a better outcome.

It still leaves us unclear as to what would happen to us if we were ill and overseas on the government scheme; it leaves your overseas coverage to discretion in determining “what is catastrophic”.

This is not the way we want to practice medicine.

What you should not do is assume that your voice doesn’t matter or that any changes will not impact you and that “somebody else” can speak out.

Stand tall, raise your hand, march in public, write a letter — it is your health.

The Bermuda Medical Doctors Association is a local body of physicians that represent the concerns of community physicians working directly for the welfare of the doctor/patient relationship. Over the past five years the BMDA has grown to more than 75 physicians, which represents the majority of community doctors on the island

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