A discussion of the government budget during a recent meeting of the Finance Committee reveals that mandatory health insurance is causing widespread concern amongst legislators in the Cayman Islands.
As Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson and Health Minister Dwayne Seymour took questions from legislators, their responses revealed that the government is spending millions of dollars on highly specialised tertiary healthcare costs for people who cannot afford private insurance coverage. In 2019, the budget for these costs was CI$9.9 million, but the actual spending totaled CI$37 million.
According to Health Minister Dwayne Seymour, this kind of government spending may lead the Cayman Islands to bankruptcy. He has not yet suggested any policy solutions to ensure that a financial crisis is avoided.
Opposition Member Chris Saunders is seemingly in agreement with Seymour as he asserted the urgent need to address the unpaid medical bills that are left to the government. To Saunders, the tendency of private health insurance companies to offload retirees on to the Cayman Islands National Insurance Company (CINICO), which is government-owned, is to blame for the excess of healthcare costs.
Taxpayers contribute to CINICO, which covers civil servants and pensioners, and Saunders believes that CINICO’s services should be expanded to cover young and healthy people. Currently, the risks of high spending are supported entirely by CINICO, and, to Saunders, expanding CINICO into a form of national health insurance is a possible solution.
CINICO is a primary concern for Finance Minister Roy McTaggart, who was chairing the committee, and he said that consultants are carrying out an analysis of CINICO’s operations. Expansion is possible, depending on the results of the reports, due in October 2020.
Financial Secretary Jefferson answered questions on behalf of Minister McTaggart and defined the costs of the government subsidies to healthcare. According to Jefferson, the arguments presented by Saunders and other legislators all made legitimate points that warrant attention.
Approximately 20% of the government’s annual budget goes to healthcare costs for people who lack insurance or who are under-insured and therefore unable to pay their bills.
