The detail, Mr Editor, is where you find the devil — so often followed by discord, division and disagreement when people don’t like what they eventually discover in the fine print. Legislation can be like that if you are not careful.

The Health Insurance (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act is a perfect example, tabled two weeks ago and now eligible for debate and adoption.

We all recall the concerns the Bill prompted, and which continue to find voice in the community, when it became known that it included a provision that will impact mammography screenings for women in Bermuda. You don’t mess with established practice. Not easily.

There is a lesson lurking there.

But before we get to that, this is also the legislation that authorises a 12 per cent increase in the standard premium rate for health insurance in Bermuda (otherwise known as the SPR). You have to read the Bill to see what this really means: a whopping $36.22 monthly jump from $301.85 to $338.07 per month.

This represents the cost of the minimum health benefits package that must be included in every health insurance policy sold in Bermuda. So? So what this means is that everyone will shortly be seeing a bigger chunk taken out of their wages for health insurance and that amount may vary depending on what package each person has and what their insurer proposes to tack on by way of an increase. Some are already estimating it may be as high as 19 per cent in some cases.

This is a big, big deal — and will be when folks see the changes show up in their pay.

If you managed to get a copy of the actual legislation, there is an Explanatory Memorandum, as there is with all legislation that comes to the House. Here’s what it had to say on these issues:

“Clause 5 amends the Health Insurance (Standard Hospital Benefit) Regulations 1971 to increase the standard premiums and deductions as set out. Regulation 3(iii) is amended to clarify that outpatient surgery provided at the general hospital is covered by the standard health benefit and, in regulation 5, a new exemption is added for screening mammograms that do not adhere to Recommendations A and B of the United States Preventive Services Task Force Guidelines.”

Not much of an explanation huh?

I don’t know about you but it still left me wondering what the amendments will actually really mean in practice. You need to have to hand the legislation that is being amended to have any shot at figuring out what’s being proposed.

It is challenging for the average person to say the least; but it can be done, and online, by going to bermudalaws.bm and comparing and cross-referencing the various pieces of legislation, if you are so inclined. Not all are.

To her credit, the Minister of Health did make a statement when the amendments were tabled which provided some insight.

The biggest increase in the SPR, some $23.64, the Minister explained, is to raise “an estimated $13.7 million” which will go directly to the Bermuda Hospitals Board. Listeners were told that the hospitals require the additional funding to support their “proactive sustainability plan”, after referring to the recent opening of new acute care wing and “a crisis in funding due to historical challenges”.

Ouch! Tell us more; and more may emerge in debate on the amendments which of course is the 12th hour, too late for the public to weigh in.

While the need may not come as a complete shock, the amount may, particularly the increased price we will be called upon to pay.

It hasn’t been easy to keep up with what has been going on at the hospitals. They are three years behind in publication of audited financials.

A very lengthy Budget brief eliminated meaningful opportunity for questions and answers on this and any other issues. The success and challenges of the one PPP we do have on Point Finger Road has also not been the focus of parliamentary scrutiny whether by PAC or any other committee of our Legislature — as it should be.

That’s been a real pity. Close public examination helps to educate and inform. The public is given a window into what’s going on and an opportunity to comment.

It’s a wonder really, why we don’t let people in on discussions on such important issues and much earlier than on the tabling of a Bill in the House. There is something to be said for sharing early drafts and inviting comment; and if not by way of a draft of the legislation than a summary of what’s proposed to be done in plain and simple language.

A shout out here, too, to the Bermuda Health Council. Check out their website, www.bhec.bm. They make a pretty good stab there at explaining things in language most people can understand. There is also the technical information available too, like up-to-date Actuarial Reports, for those who want to dig deeper. So it can be done.

How much better, and possibly more productive too, if a committee of legislators, backbenchers both Government and Opposition, were to sit around a table (not always across the floor: bun fight, bun fight) charged with responsibility to listen and to query Ministers and their legislative drafters on what is being done, and why, and in meetings open to the public.

Sorry, but our problems are not just a direct result of the Westminster system, Mr Editor. They are also the result of people who can but won’t initiate necessary and long overdue changes in the way we do public business on and off the Hill.

Mahatma Ghandi gets the last word this week: be the change you want to see.