THE House Committee on Health and Welfare has received from the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. its final report on universal health insurance in the CNMI.
The report, according to the committee chair, Rep. Tina Sablan, is mandated by Public Law 21-35 or the Fiscal Year 2021 Appropriations Act.
The committee is now reviewing CHCC’s report, and its recommendations.
“Health care is a human right and, as the report makes clear, there are many opportunities to expand access to care for all of the Commonwealth’s citizens and a range of policy avenues we may consider,” Sablan said.
The 27-page report cited a 2016 CNMI Non-Communicable Disease and Risk Factor Hybrid Survey, which indicated that “over three in five CNMI adults reported not getting an annual checkup in the previous year, nearly 1 in 2 of CNMI adults perceive their health to be fair or poor, and nearly 1 in 2 CNMI adults did not have any form of health insurance.”
According to the report, “The socio-economic dynamics in the CNMI pose a great challenge to the goal of health care coverage for all CNMI residents. The cost of health care in the CNMI is exorbitant relative to levels of disposable income, poverty, and the cost of living, among other factors. Therefore, the CNMI ought to consider locally funded premium support for individuals who are living on low incomes but are not eligible for Medicaid. The CNMI may want to consider a sliding scale of premium support based on income, and might also want to consider requiring a larger employer share for employer-sponsored plans covering low wage workers.”
