Created: Aug 19, 2023 07:29 AM
Speaking out: former PLP MP Rolfe Commissiong (File photograph)
An analysis of Bermuda’s healthcare system has exposed significant disparities between the island’s Black and White communities, it has been claimed.
Rolfe Commissiong, a former Progressive Labour Party MP, spoke out after the release of a report by Ayoola Oyinloye, the island’s departing Chief Medical Officer.
In his annual report, Dr Oyinloye condemned the island’s insurance-centric healthcare system, claiming that it allowed the most poor — and therefore the most vulnerable — to fall between the cracks.
According to Dr Oyinloye’s research, as much as 12 per cent of the population has no health coverage, while an additional 23 per cent has only basic coverage, affording them no more than the occasional doctor’s visit.
Dr Oyinloye added that the vast majority of those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder – perhaps as many as 77 per cent — were Black.
Seizing on those figures, Mr Commissiong condemned both political parties for failing to protect society’s most vulnerable.
Applauding Dr Oyinloye for his “take no prisoners, timely report”, Mr Commissiong said: “Dr Oyinloye went some way in confirming that race and socioeconomic status in Bermuda are tied at the hip and are determinant as to too many outcomes as it relates to health in this country.
“It is contributing to the overwhelming disproportionate adverse impacts this is having on the African-Bermudian community.”
Mr Commissiong also pointed out that, because of an ageing population, increasingly dwindling health insurance premiums would not be able to cover the cost of spiralling healthcare costs.
He said: “I was happy that Dr Oyinloye showed no fear in outlining throughout the report the inherent danger in allowing the fee-for-service, wild, wild West, private-market based provision of health insurance in Bermuda — which is tied to one’s employment — to continue.
“Clearly it is no longer sustainable although it always lacked equity.”
He estimates that just under 6,000 Black Bermudians are without health insurance and that the number will increase to more than 6,000 when new data is released.
“Think about that Bermuda.
“With a rapidly ageing population, those numbers will continue to explode as they have been doing of late. And the last thing a private insurance provider wants on his books is too high a percentage of ageing and aged clients. It’s called adverse selection and with a fertility rate of 1.39 and an average age of our population at around 45 years of age, Bermuda is exhibit A.”
Taking both political parties to task for failing to address healthcare costs that are spiralling beyond the reach of the average family, Mr Commissiong said: “What has happened to the PLP on this issue?”
He said that the Government had been captured by moneyed interests — “now largely foreign oligarchs in international business and assorted developers”.
“The shameful part of this is that, during the pre-2017 election period each party platform had healthcare reform and its restructuring front and centre.
“Both parties called for some variation of a single or dual-payer system in our pursuit of universal care. That was six years ago.
“They, however, are not the only interest group opposing change. Healthcare professionals themselves, particularly doctors, dentist and other healthcare specialists essentially under this system, have a license to print money at your expense.
“How do we — in a country where the GDP per capita is $114,090, which is the fourth highest globally — not provide universal care for our people in a country with the highest cost of living in the known universe?
He questioned why the Black middle class was shrinking and why more Black Bermudians were leaving for Britain, where healthcare is free.
Dr Oyinloye’s shock resignation was confirmed by the Government on Thursday. According to a government spokeswoman, Dr Oyinloye — who helped steer the Government through the Covid-19 pandemic crisis — was stepping down for “personal reasons”.