Business View Magazine - October 2018

366 367 BERMUDA HOSPITALS BOARD VENETTA SYMONDS PRESIDENT AND CEO BILL SHIELDS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER strategicplan,we’ll deliver asmuch care as we can in the appropriate place.” Although Bermuda is a British overseas territory, unlike the UKand other members of the British Com- monwealth,where a national healthcare system is financed through national insurance payments,in Bermuda it is amixof private (commercial insurers), government subsidies,and individual payments. “Everyonewho is employed is required to have insurance,”explains Bill Shields,BHB’s Chief Financial Officer.“Typically,an employer has to payaminimumof 50 percent of the insurance premium,which is set so that it provides a number of services called the stan- dard health benefit,determined by the government as aminimumoffering; everypolicyhas to provide that.And then,there is a range of supplementals that, depending on the individual’s ability to pay,would de- termine howmanyof those supplementals theymay have.It might include care at a doctor’s office,or vision, or dental.Of the government insurers,one provides support and insurance for government employees and the other two are a bit likeMedicaid andMedicare in the States–one is for thosewho can’t afford the com- mercial insurance,and the other is for those over 65.” Unfortunately,in Bermuda,as is the case inmany countries,healthcare costs have soared over the years, especially for the treatment of chronicdiseases,such as heart disease,stroke,type 2 diabetes,high blood pressure,obesity,depression,and arthritis,among others,and the island simplycannot keep up.Between 2007and 2014,Bermuda’s total health expenditures increased by51 percent.This is becoming unaffordable