The stats in the headline above are from a Harvard Business Review article by Dr. Diane E. Meir, entitled "Measuring Quality of Care for the Sickest Patients"
While the article focuses on palliative care those numbers are baffling.
So I thought I would take a look at The Bahamas Government's budget for 2015/2016.
While there is a line item for The Ministry of Health projecting expenditures at $274 million, there does not appear to be a line item for The Public Hospitals Authority (hospitals and clinics). I didn't see one in either the summary or the detailed budgets posted online.
Can anyone help point me to those numbers please?
But if the sickest 5% of patients drive 50% of all health spending in the US, imagine what the costs are here with a very large portion of the population reportedly leaning toward unhealthy lifestyles? Not to mention the inefficiencies of the government healthcare system.
CFAL recently presented their views on this and other matters relating to the implementation of NHI in a recent article entitled, The Bahamas needs healthcare reform, not NHI. Read it here…
Overhauling the healthcare system has been a refrain from Dr. Duane Sands since this discussion began. So while the CFAL article presents nothing new, it shows the government pays no attention to reasonable debate when they see a political opportunity.
Some commentators advise that sickness is bankrupting families. Meanwhile, healthcare costs are going through the roof in countries around the world and universal healthcare systems appear to be unsustainable. So adding more people to the cost of healthcare rolls could be the tipping point of the serious financial hardship The Bahamas is already facing.
As is typical, the political class seize on an emotional issue to make people believe that they can solve this dilemma for everyone with NHI.
Of course like National Insurance, it might give the appearance of working for current claimants, but like most countries, the chickens will come home to roost eventually.
Regretfully, the politicians that impose these policies are usually dead and gone when the day of reckoning comes. But, Public Choice Theory warns about this.
While we're on this topic, watch BJ Miller in this fabulous Ted Talk.
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Image from www.hbr.org
