Minister of Health & Wellness, Dr the Hon. Christopher Tufton has announced his intention to prioritise sustainable health financing over the next year.
“In the coming months, I will unveil a Ministry Paper on sustainable financing for our healthcare system and embark on a series of consultations within Government and the country, as well as our multilateral partners around health care financing,” Dr. Tufton revealed in his Sectoral presentation to Parliament today (Tuesday, May 3).
The paper, he said, will serve as a “follow on” to the Green Paper on a National Health Insurance Plan that was tabled in 2019, but which was “not pursued as desired due to the priorities of COVID-19”.
Also in line with the prioritisation of health financing, the Minister has named economist and head of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, Dr. Damien King to lead the national discussions on the issue.
Those discussions, he explained to Parliament, will focus, among other things, on the implications for poverty and the economic and social advancement of Jamaicans.
“The goal here is to achieve greater public understanding of the challenges of health care financing and the implications for each of us as individuals; to consult with local and multilateral stakeholders to explore health financing options and to assist in the advocacy that is necessary to ensure a more sustainable health financing model,” the Minister said.
The plans come as the country faces spiraling health care costs and the need to address the sick profile of the country, which faces a growing challenge with lifestyle diseases.
“A close look at the budget of the National Health Fund (NHF) shows that costs have escalated by 139% ($4.6B in FY15/16 – $11B in FY21/22, adjusted for COVID-19) over the last seven years of my tenure, with projections for the next three years suggesting further increases of approximately 30%: (2023 – $12.754B, 2024 – $13.391B, 2025 – $14.061B),” he said.
“At this rate of demand and cost increases to treat over 720,000 Jamaicans, served by the NHF, this critical entity will need approximately $40 billion over the next three years or risk being unable to address the needs of Jamaicans suffering from some sort of illness,” the Minister added.
It is critical, therefore, to move with urgency to finalise a comprehensive approach to sustainable financing.
“It is time to restructure the health system to achieve a more sustainable financing mechanism and to do so in a way that ensures efficiency and accountability of existing expenditure as well as a greater proportional distribution to reflect the increased demands on the system,” the Minister noted.