Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Staff Now Insured Under New Agreement

Over four hundred staffers at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital are now insured under an insurance agreement created between the hospital authority and the KHMH Workers Union. Chandra Nisbet Cansino CEO of the KHMH Authority says that the agreement is the culmination of a decade of negotiations between the board of management and the employees. Today, she explained that one of the greatest challenges over the years has been getting the workers to agree to pay their portion of the premium under the arrangement.

Chandra Nisbet Cansino, CEO, KHMHA: “This particular board was very adamant about it when I came on in 2021 and so they were pushing very hard for it and management supported it 100%. And so with all the negotiation that we had to do with the insurance companies we finally made it to where we are today. We have registered 408 persons that have signed up to the group plan. Indeed, to meet their minimum requirement for the insurance we had to have 50% buy-in. And so we surpassed that and we really hoped that additional staff would sign on so that they would be able to have the same peace of mind and reassurance as everybody else. The greatest challenge was getting the staff to invest in themselves. That is not necessarily a culture that we have in Belize. We tend to deal with the emergencies as they come up. We don’t save and anticipate health conditions and so that was the greatest challenge, preparing people and trying to change the culture of investing in yourself. Yes, it does take a bite out of your paycheck every month, but now you have the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong with you or your child, for those who choose to add their dependents, you know, you have, that’s one less thing for us to worry about. I would hope that the culture for Belizeans changes a little where we invest more in our health and in ourselves.”

Nisbet-Cansino says the agreement could have been reached sooner, but the pandemic made it financially impossible. However, she noted that staff still enjoyed other health benefits from working at the hospital before the insurance scheme was set up.

Chandra Nisbet Cansino, CEO, KHMHA: “The institution does provide what they call regular hospital charges are waived, which would be like hospitalization per night. We charge, I think it’s $25 per night hospitalization. So that would be waived for staff. Basic tests. We also have a staff health clinic where the staff can access consultations for free. And so there was benefits prior to this but now if the staff needs additional care, tertiary care, they need to go abroad for some sort of treatment that they cannot get in Belize, cancer care, we do provide chemotherapy here but not for all cancers. So there are a lot of patients that still have to access treatment abroad. So now they are covered for all of that. In addition to that, it has dental and vision coverage. So they could get their glasses and go to the dentist and that sort of thing that you would have been hesitant to do without an insurance plan.”