Prime Minister Mia Mottley is promising that Government will be working to make pharmaceuticals and other medical products more affordable for Barbadians, even if it has to resort to imposing price controls.
She also announced that by next year, residents will know what plans the administration has to get them affordable access to health insurance.
Mottley’s pledge to ensure savings on medical supplies – which she made without providing a timeline – comes just over a month after her administration implemented measures to reduce prices on supermarket shelves, at the gas pump, and on electricity.
“This Government is prepared to take action now to also protect us and our consumers in the area of medical services because we believe that it is not only the supermarket or it is not only at the gas station that we must seek to control prices, but also in the delivery of services across the entire spectrum,” Mottley said on Friday, during the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a $12 million urgent care centre at the Bayview Hospital.
“I say so conscious that as I have met with the private sector to deal with food costs and to ask them to cap their mark-ups between 15 and 20 per cent that, regrettably, in the area of pharmaceuticals we continue to face mark-ups in this country that are prohibitive and unacceptable, especially in this environment within which we are functioning.”
While indicating that she was hoping for a “voluntary approach” to a “sensible” outcome, Mottley hinted that failing that, price controls would be imposed.
“I do not like price controls, but I am aware that price controls are also a part of the arsenal that is available to a government with respect to cost. If we can’t reach a sensible discussion and approach through the Ministry of Health and those providers of pharmaceuticals in the country, then the Government will have to determine what appropriate actions it puts in place to protect the average consumer with respect to access to pharmaceuticals and other supplies in the medical area in Barbados,” she said.
Bayview Chairman Peter Harris, Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Minister of Health and Wellness Ian Gooding-Edghill at this morning’s event.
“We are aware that there are larger countries who do that and therefore we also are aware of the effectiveness in other jurisdictions.”
The Prime Minister said industry stakeholders also had a duty to ensure they did not price themselves “out of people’s reach, especially at this particular time”.
She announced that work which was started with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to map out an affordable national health insurance scheme will continue and a decision should be reached by next year.
“The Minister of Health has advised that work will also dovetail with the work that we are looking at – the reform of the National Insurance Scheme – and to ensure that we find a mechanism that will allow affordable access to health care to all as we promised to do,” said Mottley.
“There is no doubt that the [COVID-19] pandemic put us on the backfoot on being able to achieve this goal, and as a result we lost two full years in the kind of work that was being done, and I hope that work now will be resumed with dispatch.
“Those persons who will be sent to us by the WHO should be here by October to be able to work with our local practitioners, such that we are in a position next year to advise the country as to what we recommend with respect to affordable access to health insurance in Barbados,” the Prime Minister added.
