‘Funding hobbles health insurance coverage’

The many challenges facing the CNMI government in providing health insurance coverage can be succinctly summarized in one word: funding.

Public Health deputy secretary Pete Untalan said funding has always been a challenge in providing health insurance coverage to the CNMI people, with no adequate funding for government-sponsored programs such as the Government Health Insurance, Medicaid and medically indigent programs. In his presentation during last week’s special health conference held at the Aqua Resort Club, Untalan said ways of meeting this challenge should be explored and that lawmakers should sit down on this issue and address it accordingly.

“We need to examine this,” he said.

He also said the government and the community should discuss what type of health care services should be provided them despite the limited resources.

Untalan said the government should define its responsibility as providers of health care. “The government health insurance program began with the purpose of providing insurance for government employees but limited to on-island care,” he said.

This seems to be a simple enough concept but has become very “problematic” as proven by what is happening today.

Medicaid, he said, started out as a traditional Medicaid Program for categorically needy as defined in the Medicaid regulations. Policy change was made to move away from traditional Medicaid, without reviewing long term consequences as to its ability to sustain the program without any increase in federal share or increasing local appropriations.

“Any system change to grow the private medical sector requires changes in our current laws,” said Untalan.

As for the appropriation and expenditures issues facing DPH, Untalan said the department should evaluate other services within the Commonwealth Health Center that could be outsourced and may prove more beneficial to the community in providing better access, availability, possible reduced cost, and quality.

He added that the hospital’s operational expenditures throughout the years except in fiscal year 2002 exceeded its annual appropriation, which only covered basic operations such as personnel and essential medical supplies. The appropriation, he said, does not cover equipment replacement, facility improvement in the hospital and professional staff development.