THE GOVERNMENT has announced a $2.2 billion National Health Fund to cushion the cost of drugs needed by the chronically ill in Jamaica, estimated to be some 750,000 persons. The affordability of drugs, especially for senior citizens, is a problem common to Jamaica and the United States which, distracted by the war with Iraq, has still not introduced legislation to deal with it while we in Jamaica have at least made a humanitarian start. We commend the government and John Junor, Minister of Health, for this farsighted move.
The fund will cover medicines for the major chronic illnesses which face Jamaicans including, inter alia, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, breast and prostate cancer and asthma. Those qualified to participate in the Fund will have to be registered starting on April 28 and the Minister has pointed out that they will have to make a small co-payment for the drugs. We caution that if the co-payment is too high it will defeat the purpose of the project and we hope that the bureaucracy of its administration will not become so burdensome and/or inefficient that those who need it most will find it difficult to access the benefits.
The tobacco industry will be funding nearly half the costs of the scheme by way of a 23 per cent excise tax on cigarettes and we think this is appropriate. Although people should be free to make choices even if they are detrimental to themselves, smokers can become a special burden on the limited resources of the country; many productive workers removed from the society by cancer at an early age, many disabled by emphysema. Another source of funding is to be the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) which is now equivalent to a tax of 5 per cent of wages, half deducted from employees' salaries and the other half from employer's profits. According to the Minister the NIS is to be 'reconfigured' to accommodate the new funding, but he refused to confirm or deny whether this means that NIS contributions will be increased in the forthcoming budget.
In these troubled times for the Jamaican economy, the National Health Fund seems to have been carefully crafted and it will bring significant relief to many of our citizens who cannot afford their own health care. Good news, indeed.
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