I hope they do because the healthcare in this country, especially for the poor and the elderly is very ill.

North Side MLA Ezzard Miller filed a Private Members Motion in the LA to have a six member panel to be made up of four government members and two opposition members to join forces and engage in a public review of the entire system.

Seems a very good idea to me.

It didn’t get passed because government have their own health care plan.

If that is the case why didn’t they invite Miller to put forward two of his opposition members to come on board?

Minister of Health, Dwayne Seymour, told the LA, he was shaping the policy, he had a team, things were heading in the right direction to improve our healthcare and the reforms that would be put in place would stop the bleeding.

Did he mean the actual patients blood or the monetary bleeding from the horrible CINICO? The coverage my wife and I get from what we pay in each month is woeful. It would be cheaper not to have it as with only a couple of visits to the hospital that CINICO covers the fees less 20% you reach your yearly limit. We are old for goodness sake. So where is the money bleeding coming from? One guess. Government workers?

And when you are forced to use the Government Hospital you have to pay $70 up front BEFORE you even get to see a doctor, even if it’s only to get a prescription re-written.

Miller outlined the current healthcare problems correctly – patients, healthcare providers, health insurance firms and regulators.

He also said, “patients were being denied surgery because they could not afford the co-pay as their cover is inadequate, others could not get cover at all and financial barriers were preventing Caymanians in all quarters from accessing quality healthcare.”

Correct.

On the other side he said Health Care Insurance Companies were complaining of patient abuse.

As chair of the Public Accounts Committee he found examples at the top of the health ministry of a serious lack of knowledge and commitment to provide the policy direction that was needed.

But Premier Alden McLaughlin said government’s plan was going to address all of this and another select committee would be a recipe for “abject failure”. Government’s hands would be tied as one would have to wait for the committee’s recommendations.

I was, quite frankly, amazed at this. Whilst I agree completely with this, am I not mistaken over the last four years our premier has championed committee after committee to sort out our problems?

Maybe he has learnt committees are only put in place when you don’t want to get something done quickly.

We will have to wait for the Budget and see what is in there for healthcare.

And what this plan is. I hope it really is a healthy one.