Draft of National Health Insurance Plan being prepared for Cabinet - Tufton

Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton has disclosed that the final draft of the National Health Insurance Plan is being prepared for submission to Cabinet.

“We held a series of consultations with a range of stakeholders. We still may do a few more, but ultimately, Cabinet will have to approve it, then there is the matter of how you operationalise it. So, it is a scheduled implementation and will take some time to get to full throttle,” Tufton said.

He was speaking to JIS News at the opening of the ninth annual National Health Research Conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston last Thursday.

Tufton said that the insurance plan aims to “get more people involved [in accessing] health coverage” and will ensure that the most vulnerable have some basic insurance.

“A lot of Jamaicans are accessing health coverage in terms of the National Health Fund, but that is [just] drugs. Twenty per cent of the population [has] private health insurance; about 12 per cent of those are government workers, and then the rest are private,” he pointed out.

“The insurance that is being envisioned will enhance some of the other components of benefits, whether it is diagnostic or otherwise, and develop a more organised way to outsource some of those benefits. So, it is an attempt at a more holistic approach to ensuring universal access to healthcare,” he explained further.

The two-day Health Research Conference is aimed at giving recognition to research being conducted in the public sector and in partner institutions across the country.

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