Financial details for the Island’s newly-drafted health benefits package will be put before the public later this year, according to Health Minister Zane DeSilva.Residents should enjoy a wider range of benefits than those currently offered once the National Health Plan comes into effect in two years’ time.What it will cost and how it will be paid for have yet to be fine-tuned however, with a public consultation expected in the last quarter of 2012.Six task groups have been planning the overhaul of Bermuda’s healthcare system under the National Health Plan since last November.Explained Mr DeSilva: “The benefit design task group have completed the majority of their work, and have handed on proposals to the finance and reimbursement task group to come up with the numbers in terms of cost. When they have something to show us, we’ll take those proposals and consult with stakeholders. They may end up being tweaked a little.”Currently, hospital benefits cover only hospital procedures by hospital staff. Bermuda Health Council CEO Jennifer Attride-Stirling said Government wants to add benefits to the package, such as “doctors’ visits and maybe some prescription drugs or dental cover”.Moving benefits that are currently under the major medical plan into the standard package is expected to increase costs to the standard health benefit, but lower major medical costs.Mr DeSilva said he was pleased with the task groups’ progress so far, adding: “The schedules for a couple are going to take longer than others; the IT task group is a seven-year project. Long-term care has a longer timeline as well.”The plan’s financial models are sure to attract the most attention when the Ministry goes public with the cost of reforms.Noting that coverage of people by the standard health benefit should make the scheme more cost-effective, Mr DeSilva said he would like to see health costs reduced.However, he conceded: “Anyone in Bermuda would be happy for costs to rise at the rate of inflation.”Another goal is for the new King Edward VII Memorial to switch over to electronic medical records by 2014.Health Permanent Secretary Kevin Monkman said the computerised records will become “part of the foundation for a community-wide electronic health record system that can improve quality and reduce costs”.Electronic records will also enable better monitoring of public health, and should trim costs by coordinating patient care, he said.Mr DeSilva also took the opportunity to defend the Bermuda Hospitals Board’s refusal to release a report by US consultants on the state of the hospital’s Continuing Care Unit.One Bermuda Alliance MP Louise Jackson has repeatedly called for public access to the review, but Mr DeSilva said: “The report is not public at this time.“You have to remember, the hospital undertakes many reviews. Sometimes a lot of it is sensitive information. We’re pretty good at providing information to the public if need be, but you don’t always want to release a review with people’s personal opinions in them. Then, the next thing you’d have is people won’t want to give honest feedback.”The Minister also took aim at “misconceptions” by the public about the National Health Plan’s implications.“We heard from the international business community that there is concern about patients not having a choice of doctor, but that is not the case,” he said.“Under the reforms, doctors will still be mostly private and each person will choose who to go to. People have also asked if our system will be like the NHS in the UK, but that’s also not the case. Here, providers are mostly private, and they will remain private. There’s no plan to nationalise. Also, the NHS covers most health services, which our reforms won’t do.”Bermuda’s new health system will focus on “creating a sound package of essential benefits”, Mr DeSilva said, adding that “people may top up with private health insurance”.He continued: “When we first started talking about it, one particular group was putting out information that this new plan is going to be a backdoor income tax. That’s not correct. Everyone is struggling with healthcare costs. We’re no different.”The driving force for healthcare reforms is “cost and access”, he said.“We have about six percent of our population that are not insured. We can’t have that — not for the amount we are spending.”Useful website: www.nhp.bm.