Column: OBA’s Rogers On Healthcare & More
[Opinion column written by OBA Senator David Rogers]
The former education minister’s recent resignation letter offered a rare glimpse behind the curtain of this Government and its cabinet. In clear and direct language, she described frustrations that many Bermudians have raised for years. To anyone familiar with the Opposition’s primary concerns, her words will sound remarkably familiar. The difference between her observations is merely a thin film of political affiliation tinted by predictable identity politics.
The irony, of course, is impossible to ignore. Her criticism of the lack of “openness and transparency that the people of Bermuda deserve” comes despite her own wilful participation in the very Cabinet she now condemns. Yet, that irony should not distract us from the substance.
One specific passage deserves careful attention: “Decisions affecting the future of public education have too often been driven by predetermined political objectives rather than by the evidence, professional advice, and technical expertise available to Government.”
That statement should concern every Bermudian. It describes not only education, but reflects a pattern evident across the entire government.
Nowhere is this effect more apparent than in health. For years, the Government has promised that Universal Health Coverage (UHC) would solve many of the challenges facing Bermuda’s health system. While the island has waited for UHC, Bermudians have watched the cost of care become steadily less affordable. Insurance premiums continue to climb. Co-payments for primary and specialist care continue to rise. Consolidation and vertical integration within the insurance and health provider sectors have continued with little meaningful regulatory intervention. Government’s response has been that all will become clear when its UHC proposal is unveiled in October.
To demonstrate consultation, Government established the UHC Steering Committee, the Clinical Senate, and several other working groups representing health financing, insurers, providers, advocates, and other stakeholders. Yet, it is widely known within Bermuda’s health community that these committees have not met in months.
This fact raises uncomfortable questions. If meaningful consultation has effectively stopped, what exactly is being presented in October? More importantly, to what degree have experts shaped the final UHC product?
It appears the UHC process has become exactly what the former minister described: “a predetermined political objective”, with consultation serving as little more than window dressing for conclusions already reached.
Healthcare reform is simply too important for that approach. Patients deserve policies grounded in evidence. Policies informed by clinicians and health providers. Policies tested through genuine public engagement with openness and transparency. We do not need another press release designed for political applause, announced on CITV, with no real push-back or follow-up questions allowed.
Bermuda needs real healthcare reform. Our system must become more affordable, more sustainable, and more equitable. Reforms built on “predetermined outcomes” rather than transparent collaboration risks creating new problems while leaving the old ones unresolved.
The former minister’s resignation letter was objectively correct. Its warnings should not fade into Bermuda’s political news cycle, where today’s revelations are quickly buried beneath tomorrow’s distractions. It should prompt a broader conversation about how this Government makes decisions. If evidence, expertise, and transparency are required for education, they should be required for health, and for every other major policy that affects the people of Bermuda.
- Shadow Health Minister David Rogers
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