Not only does the Barbados Association of Retired Person (BARP) not support the call for retired returning nationals to pay towards their own health care cost, but the organisation is also requesting empirical data on why such a call was made in the first place.
In a statement, BARP acknowledged the increasing use of the health care system and the potential strain on its infrastructure in the wake of debate on the Barbados Medical Products Bill, 2026 earlier this month in the House of Assembly but said there was misperception about that segment of the population.
“The association notes that many returning Barbadians live on modest, fixed incomes that have been significantly affected by global inflation. As a result, they are often incorrectly perceived as being financially secure,” the release said.
“BARP further points out that members of the Barbadian diaspora have historically contributed to national development through investments in real estate, the payment of property taxes and ongoing financial support to relatives through remittances.”
During the debate on June 16, Member of Parliament for St Philip North Dr Sonia Browne said while she might get some “licks” from the public, there were returning nationals among the people who go to the polyclinics that “never contributed to our system, never paid NIS (National Insurance) in our system but are happy to sit down with a book in the polyclinics for hours to get free medication that somebody else pays for”.
“I think it is time, as I said with the exceptions, that some of these individuals are required to contribute to the cost of drugs. It is only fair and it can lend to less burden on it and hundreds of people visit the polyclinic on a daily basis,” said Browne, a former minister of state in the Ministry of Health with responsibility for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
“It would lend to the burden of the medication, the cost could go to some other part in medicine but I think it is about time that we have a look at that, or relook at it, so that they will lend to the cost of it.”
BARP president Marilyn Rice-Bowen acknowledged the challenges facing the sector but sounded a note of caution.
“We cannot support policies that create unequal tiers of citizenship. It is difficult to justify providing access to publicly-funded healthcare services for foreign nationals under regional agreements while denying similar access to Barbadians who have returned home after living abroad.”
The proposed Immigration and Citizenship Bill, 2026, now before the Joint Select Committee, makes provision for CARICOM nationals working here to qualify for healthcare and education.
BARP said they have promoted better planning for personal healthcare among the membership, including the promotion of private medical insurance designed to provide another safety net for people in their 40s and 50s, reducing their dependence on the public healthcare system.
“Our objective must be to strengthen national protection and healthcare sustainability while ensuring that no group of Barbadians is unfairly excluded. Many returning nationals have contributed to Barbados in meaningful ways throughout their lives, even if those contributions were made outside traditional systems,” Rice-Bowen pointed out.
During that same debate, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw stayed away from the call to pay but said more emphasis needed to be placed on improving the systems that impacted the day-to-day life of the ordinary Barbadian. ( PR/SAT)