During the debate on the Health Insurance Amendment (No. 2) Act 2009 in the House of Assembly yesterday, Health Minister Walter Roban said FutureCare could be delivered at a cost of $39 million for about 3,100 beneficiaries, based on actuarial reports. He said Government would give $10 million in incremental funding to the scheme and that enrolled seniors would pay a $260 a month premium.

Mr. Roban told MPs: "At the six month mark, FutureCare is performing just under 50 percent of the original actuarial projections."

He said the Island currently had no affordable private insurance available for seniors, meaning Government had to reopen HIP to those seniors who failed to make it into phase one of FutureCare.

The Minister accused detractors of giving out misinformation on FutureCare.

Shadow Health and Seniors Minister Louise Jackson said: "We wouldn't be here today in the first place debating this Health Insurance Amendment Act if Government had kept its promise to seniors and I want to say here that I have not given out any misinformation."

She added: "This Government did not keep its promise to the people of Bermuda. They didn't roll out this plan in a fair and open way."

She said Premier Ewart Brown had promised seniors in 2007 that the PLP Government would give them guaranteed affordable health care for the remainder of their lives.

"This problem arose because this promise wasn't kept," claimed Mrs. Jackson. "We wouldn't be here if it had been kept. Why are we here trying to get seniors who are 65 and older onto HIP? They should have been in FutureCare."

Government backbencher Terry Lister said private health insurers were to blame, for pulling their affordable plans for seniors after FutureCare was launched.

"The insurers need to take their share of this risk, their share of this responsibility," he said. "The whole conversation today is that we have come back here to fix something that came about because of the action of the insurers."

He said Government "never intended and we never planned to leave anybody out" of FutureCare but that a phased approach was the only way to implement the scheme.

Mr. Lister said the Premier's promise of guaranteed health care for seniors was made from his heart. "That's how the PLP does things," he said.

Grant Gibbons, Shadow Education Minister, however raised questions over the funding of FutureCare, warning that the population of Bermuda was expected to double over the next 20 years.

"The Minister introduced the FutureCare programme as affordable. The question is, affordable for who? Unfortunately FutureCare is not that affordable in its current situation.

"It may be affordable for those seniors who have it, about a third of the population, but it's not affordable for everyone else."

Dr. Gibbons said $39 million had been allocated to the first phase, which he said covered 3,100 eligible seniors.

"The promise was to cover all seniors in Bermuda. We know there's some 8,300 seniors out there, so if you take that $39 million upwards and allow for the other 5,000 seniors, that's a little over three times $39 million. You're looking at a cost closer to $120 million. That's a very different situation than $39 million.

"Since the promise was to enrol everybody, if you did that this year the programme would be costing us $100-120 million.

"That's why we ask, is it affordable?"

Dr. Gibbons said: "If you then take the issue of a senior population which is doubling in the next 20 years, from 11 percent to 23 percent of the population, and you look at the rate of healthcare inflation, you end up with a perfect storm."

He said HIP premiums had already gone up from $108 a month in 2003 to $208 in 2009 an increase of more than 15 percent each year.

"With full enrolment, we could be facing a bill of just short of $1 billion in 20 years.

"When the Minister says it's affordable, yes, it may be affordable to seniors but the problem is it's not affordable to the rest of the country.

"Anyone under 50 may require coronary care as the extra needed to support this is going to go up at an extraordinary rate."

Dr. Gibbons added the scheme was also creating two kinds of seniors those on FutureCare and those on HIP.

"When we say it is unfair, the stronger word is discriminatory. That's what we mean."

He said there were seniors paying out for HIP, but those paying slightly more for the $260-a-month FutureCare had the more attractive "BMW package".

"That's unfair. FutureCare is unfair. It's unaffordable and is also unsustainable, because you will have younger members of the community groaning under an extra burden which in the end will be insurmountable."

He added there was still not sufficient information to the public on the scheme.

"The Government needs to come clean and let us know what the full benefits package is," said Dr. Gibbons.

But former Health Minister Michael Scott insisted: "FutureCare is for every senior and it will provide healthcare for every future senior."

He said Government was forced to phase it in due to "economic reasons".

Mr. Scott, Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and E-commerce, accused Dr. Gibbons of presenting a "Doomsday scenario".

He claimed a "growing workforce" over the next 20 years in technology, construction and hotel development would help pay for it.

"We will have employees engaged in a vibrant economy in Bermuda," he said.

"Government will plot a steady and prudent course in FutureCare to prove we are responsible in meeting seniors needs.

"Phasing in is the watchword. The purpose of this amendment is to respond to an immediate need, that of filling a gap."

Mr. Scott also dismissed Dr. Gibbons' claims as "poppycock".

"I reject these characterisations of U-turns, as trying to mischaracterise what the amendment is trying to do," he said.

"It's an urgent and immediate response by a wise government to produce a basket or a net to cover our seniors as well as we can, until we get to the second phase of covering the next trough, or raft, or our seniors in FutureCare provision."

l Debate report continues in Monday's Royal Gazette.