The private sector provides the same services as the public sector but at a with much more efficiency and at a lower cost.

As the poster above notes I am overjoyed that a Union loyalist such as yourself sees the benefits of privatization and hope you relay the message within your organization.

One of the main problems I saw working in health insurance was the nonchalant way physicians ordered diagnostic tests, oblivious to the costs. In the U.S. if you go to a physician for, let’s say, an infected hangnail the doctor isn’t allowed to send you off for blood tests on all and sundry plus an MRI-they are only allowed to send you for tests that related to that particular ailment (e.g. a skin culture). In Bermuda, physicians often do this-sometimes at a patient’s request. The doctor will say “While you’re here, let’s send you off for some blood work” or whatever else the patient asks for and will proceed to tick a million boxes on the lab form with NO idea of how much those tests cost-with many costing hundreds of dollars each. Most times the test will come back perfectly fine which appeases the patient but at what cost? Don’t even get me started on hypochondriacs who request and receive any test they want with no necessity whatsoever-who pays for that? All of us.

Of course preventative medicine is important but sometimes the physicians go overboard in ordering tests. Furthermore, there ARE some physicians who know full well how lucrative labs are and so have attached labs to their practices, where they then direct the patient for a bunch of unneeded tests, bill the insurance companies and generate a ton of revenue. If you go to the doctor for something minor like a mild rash on one’s hand, why test the every organ in the patient’s body just for the sake of it? If the person has a raging rash that covers their entire body and a cause isn’t found and it doesn’t respond to treatment, fine, but in most cases they are ordered at the get-go with no valid reason. If people have to pay for these tests out of pocket, they’ll pass…but if they have insurance they don’t think twice about receiving unnecessary tests because they never see the bills-and then complain when their premiums go up.

It’s hard for the ordinary citizen to understand this and I’ll probably get bashed but lab costs are WAY out of control in this country. When you have individual tests that cost four, five, six hundred dollars that are ordered for NO legitimate reason, of course it will drive health care costs and insurance premiums sky high. I wrote a letter to the editor years ago warning that this would eventually happen and that this needed to be controlled by physicians or government would step in and put the controls in for them…and here we are.

If you feel that government should regulate doctors rate, then we much advocate the same in regards to grocery stores, BELCO, TELCO, plumbers and electricians, Lawyers (hell they charge $500 per hour just to listen to you) etc.
Were would it END!

Still see no reference to the countries in the above article you listed in your original post. Please enlighten. I see references to the Caribbean and the US, however.

If you need a reminder I suggest you Google the incident about the two Doctor employees seeking to be unionized. The story was printed sometime in September 2013 and you defended the decision to fire the workers because of who the doctor was/is within that same article. Strange your defending given your desire for anyone who desires to become unionized is allowed to do so. Strange indeed.

Liek I said wind must be out the east today.

What doctor fired two employees because they sought to be unionised? Get your facts right, because you’re wrong on this one, again.

It stands to reason that a person should get every cent of the value of their pension balance over their retirement years irrespective of the annuity product they choose with any unpaid balance going to their beneficiary and not the Pension Administrator’s shareholders.

Who lives to be 99 years old these days, very few.

When the Opposition at the time brough this up they were called racists while IB was called capitalist pigs, part of the Combined Opposition that just wanted to make money off Bdian backs.

So please stop acting like this is some sort of a precedent for our island’s political scene.

All I ask is for the Doctor’s to provide the proof that pre-certification is as bad as they say it is. Provide the cost increases and the ‘death by delay’ examples. Given the size and populations of the Caribbean and USA regions it shouldn’t be that hard to conjure up some examples of the negatives they speak of. And if so bad why hasn’t those respective Governments done away with pre-certification after experiencing the negatives of their legislative requirements. These are also facts that the public should be made aware pf as well.

And if the local doctors are committed to reducing healthcare costs in Bermuda then they need to take the next step by lowering their fees. Especially for specialists who charge outrageous prices no matter the length or depth of the visit.

You ask if the BHeC suports it then in the next sentence claim they are against it.

It appears that you did not read the Ministry’s release which it states that:

“Pre‐certification is planned to apply to select medical imaging procedures [e.g. MRI, CT scans, Echocardiography, etc.]; and to specific clinical laboratory test orders and orders with a cumulative value above $300.

“Orders by specialists and diagnostic testing for emergencies will not have to be pre‐certified. Self‐referrals will be subject to pre‐certification.”

Didn’t the Ministry and the Doctor’s Association both mention the Caribbean and USA as comparables in terms of policy?

The Caribbean jurisdiction makes more sense in terms of comparables.

Suprised that a Union stalwart is so keen on protecting the Doctor’s right to charge their patients so much money. Very strange position indeed.

But then again you are the same Union stalwart that defended a certain Doctor’s firing of two employees that sought to be unionized.

Guess your opinion depends on what way the wind is blowing.

When the Ministry of Health was directly involved in a Symposium last year at which experts were brought in from both the U.S. and the Caribbean by the Symposium organizers/Government with the express purpose of promoting the introduction of pre-certification, these experts encouraged Bermuda NOT to proceed with pre-certification and gave their reasons for this recommendation.

Surely, this Symposium (not open to the public) was recorded or videotaped. Can the Symposium organizers please release these recommendations now so we can all hear and see what the experts recommended?

It has been suggested that our local insurance companies fully support pre-certification. There is good reason to believe that it is supported by one, and only one insurance company and this company has a direct interest in seeing it implemented. If that is not the case can we have someone from the other insurance companies make their position clear as the Doctors have done?

Can we also be advised what the Bermuda Health Council’s position was on the issue of pre-certification. Did they vote to support it? Or did they vote against it?

The alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear if our doctors, the majority of our insurance companies, the BHeC, and even the experts brought in to “sell” pre-certification are all against its introduction.

We the public have a right to know the truth and the facts.

If I’m a doctor and I own a diagnostic testing lab, I’m going to have an incentive to send my patients to my own lab for frequent multiple tests, not all of which may be necessary. But insurance pays, so why not?

I hope any Government places caps on the prices you charge for treatment. Getting rich off of your patients is immoral and needs to end.

For instance one filling should not cost $400 as mine did last month!

That is absolute robbery and should be addressed immediately.

And on top of that I would like to see evidence from the Caribbean and US jusrisdictions in which pre-certfication has increased health care costs and resulted in ‘death by delay.’

Show us the evidence of your claims and why these jurisdictions introduced pre-certification while you think it would be detrimental to Bermuda.

You can shout and scream all you want, but without evidence it looks like to many that you Doctors, Specialists and Dentists just want to continue overcharging your patients who you are entrusted to keep healthy by stating such without the facts to back up your claims.

Did anyone see 60 minutes that is why Heath care is so high all about $$$$$ SMDH this is truly a wicked world how much money is enough