One hundred percent of Bermuda residents will be provided with basic and essential health care in 2013, under a revolutionary National Health Plan unveiled yesterday.Health Minister Zane DeSilva said the plan would introduce “wide-ranging and profound” reforms to the Island’s health care system.The plan aims to make health care more affordable and improve access and quality care.It identifies 11 goals, to be implemented in the next two to six years, that will make the health care system more equitable and sustainable.Mr DeSilva said the reforms “address the long-standing concerns with the escalating costs of health care, and the inequitable burden placed on too many individuals and families.“Health care costs are escalating too quickly for individuals, employers and the Government. We need sustainable growth.“And the cost of coverage is disproportionately high for those most in need: the sick, the elderly and low-income families. We need equity in the system if we are to prosper as a community.”The National Health Plan 2011 pledges to ensure basic and essential care is provided for every Bermuda resident in 2013.The plan states universal access is “necessary” for the Island to achieve better health outcomes, such as improving life expectancy and reducing disparity.Eligibility will be determined on the basis of residence and will be defined by law. The package of services covered will also be defined in law.When asked how the universal coverage would affect rates people currently pay, Mr DeSilva said: “Those who can pay will pay, and now those that are struggling to pay, we want to make sure they don’t pay or pay very little.“The system we have right now is very unfair.”Another goal is to ensure that basic coverage includes urgent physical and mental health care, hospitalisation, primary care, preventative care and maintenance.It will also include clinical preventative services like screening, counselling and treatment.It is expected to take one year to design the level of coverage appropriate for the Island; it should be implemented in 2012.The National Health Plan will also ensure health coverage contributions are based on ability to pay.This will allow health care costs to be affordable to all members of the community.It also changes the way health care is defined as treatment will no longer be considered a consumer good or commodity, but a “public good” that is accessible by need.Currently the Island compares well with other countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality rates and access to health care.But it fares poorly in terms of ensuring all residents have affordable health insurance coverage which provides a core set of services.An estimated 90 to 95 percent of people have at least basic coverage in Bermuda, whereas most OECD countries pay less and provide 100 percent coverage.Mr DeSilva said: “It has often been said a community is measured by the way it treats its weakest members. This holds true in all aspects of physical, emotional and social well-being.“For this reason, it is essential that we treat health and health care as fundamental human rights. It is not befitting of a fair and humane society to treat health care as a privilege of employment or as welfare for the poor.“It must be a right endowed equally on every resident based on need. This National Health Plan lays the foundation for this global aspiration to become a reality in Bermuda.”Other goals include ensuring smarter use of overseas care, introducing an integrated health IT system, health promotion, and re-engineering the way health care is financed so it can be more cost-effective and ensure better value for money.l Useful links: www.gov.bm, www.bhec.bm, www.oecd.org.