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Friday, December 19, 2025
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Health funding’s ‘unsustainable’ gap with $24m funding deficit By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FINANCING for Bahamian public healthcare is “on an unsustainable track” with a $24m annual deficit predicted by the upcoming 2026-2027 fiscal year, it has been revealed, with this shortfall set to worsen due to an increasingly elderly population. The Bahamas’ just-released National Health Strategy Report for 2026-2030, which has been obtained by Tribune Business, discloses that this widening financing gap - which is forecast despite a total $35.3m increase in the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ budget allocation for the current 2025-2026 fiscal year threatens to expand inequality and “impoverishment” by forcing more families to fund medical care from their own funds. The report, which noted that the Government’s annual healthcare spending is less than the 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) threshold viewed as essential to funding the universal health coverage targeted by The Bahamas, also warned that the “sustainability” of National Health Insurance (NHI) could be endangered from patient costs increasing by 53 percent during the five years since the COVID-19 pandemic. The availability of NHI coverage was rated as the “best thing” about
• NHI ‘sustainability’ threat as patient costs surge 53% • Public health system below 20% transparency mark • Sands: ‘Why isn’t closing shortfall $3bn Budget priority?’ Bahamian healthcare by a survey of 1,445 persons conducted in July 2025, with 43 percent selecting this as the top item. However, the Health Strategy Report also revealed that a 2023 assessment of the public healthcare system had exposed that The Bahamas “met less than 20 percent” of transparency and participation standards. And it added that “governance effectiveness is also affected by bureaucratic processes, limited transparency and vulnerability to political standards”, while noting that Bahamian adult obesity rates and hypertension “far exceed the Caribbean average”. “The health system financing is on an unsustainable track, with a
Fishing lodges warning on ‘exclusionary agenda’ By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net LODGE owners and operators are challenging assertions by Prescott Smith, the Bahamas Fly Fishing Industry Association’s president, that their segment of the industry should be reserved exclusively for Bahamians only. Those spoken to by Tribune Business, while agreeing that fly fishing guides must be 100 percent Bahamian, gave a cooler response to Mr Smith’s suggestion that the same apply
to lodge ownership and operations. Cheryl Bastian, proprietor of Swain’s Cay Lodge in Andros, said The Bahamas should welcome legitimate foreign investors, particularly those who will employ Bahamians and help build communities. “I think if we have investors who are coming in to invest in the country, who are going to employ persons and create jobs and help build communities, we should obviously selectively welcome them as well, as we’ve always done. That’s
CATCH - See Page B4
Appeal court rejects striking ‘stain on the judicial record’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE former general manager of a Freeport-based shipping agent has failed in his bid to remove “a stain on the judicial record” after the Court of Appeal ruled that it was rendered “moot” by previous changes to an injunction imposed on him. The appellate court, in a unanimous verdict, rejected the attempt by Philip Pinder, a former senior executive at BMLS Ltd, known as Bahamas Maritime and Logistics Services,
to have the “original” injunction Order removed from legal records amid the ongoing fight with his ex-employer over allegations he “commercially and financially sabotaged their business” in the immediate aftermath of the principal owner’s passing. With the port services contract for Carnival’s $600m Celebration Key destination on Grand Bahama among the deals at the heart of their dispute, the Court of Appeal recorded BMLS’ allegations that Mr Pinder visited
VERDICT - See Page B7
forecasted deficit of $24m by fiscal year 2026,” the Heath Strategy Report said. “Funding shortfalls will be exacerbated as the DR DUANE SANDS dependency ratio changes, and the country sees a rise in health expenditure for the elderly while the working population shrinks. “Health expenditure shortfall results in significant reliance on private spending, leaving one-third of health costs to be met out-of-pocket. Such financial exposure creates inequities in access, particularly for catastrophic and specialised care, and increases the risk of impoverishment among vulnerable households.” The Health Strategy Report showed that The Bahamas’ spending on healthcare hit a new peak of around $1.3bn, equal to $35,000 per capita or 7.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), in 2023. The Government’s share, at around 4.6 percent of GDP, is lower than internationally-accepted benchmarks for financing universal health coverage, and the funding “shortfall” prediction came despite health’s increased Budget allocation.
CARE - See Page B5
GRAND LUCAYAN
Freeport lacking scale to ‘efficiently support’ Shipyard’s expansion By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FREEPORT lacks the size and critical mass to “efficiently support” developments such as the $600m Grand Bahama Shipyard dry dock replacement, a prominent hotelier asserted yesterday, as he urged: “We need stopover tourists back.” Magnus Alnebeck, the Pelican Bay resort’s general manager, told Tribune Business that the Shipyard’s imminent expansion - which will require the frequent movement of skilled expatriate personnel into
and out of Grand Bahama was another factor making the Grand Lucayan’s sale and redevelopment all the more urgent. Explaining that the Shipyard alternates between generating “peaks and valleys” in business flows, which are tied to when it has a vessel in dry dock, he added that Freeport and Grand Bahama need to revive their stopover tourism business to create a more consistent, steady “customer base”. The Grand Lucayan’s closure, in anticipation that its
RESORT - See Page B5