Muña: Revive healthcare impact tax bill

With the prevalence of diabetes on the islands, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muna believes a past bill that proposed to impose a healthcare impact tax should be revived to discourage the purchase of unhealthy foods.

According to CHCC’s data for 2013 alone, the prevalence rate of diabetes has risen to 81.83 per 1,000 persons alone. Although CHCC has made additional investments by recruiting more internal medicine physicians and reopening its satellite clinics, Muña believes reviving House Bill 18-34 may help stem people’s penchant for buying unhealthy foods.

HB 18-34 sought to impose a 150 percent ad valorem tax on tobacco; 70 percent ad valorem tax on alcohol; and 70 percent tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Aside from the potential revenue, it was introduced to control people’s behavior.

“HB 18-34 received many criticisms because of the assumed economic effect on individuals and businesses. The struggle that CHCC has in addressing health care in the CNMI is a result of the small investment the CNMI makes in health care,” Muña said.

“HB 18-34 will not by any means pay for CHCC’s entire operational cost but it will certainly discourage our people from purchasing unhealthy foods that is linked to these diseases and it will help CHCC assist our people in achieving optimal health. This bill, if passed into law, is an investment in improving the health of our people,” she added.

HB 18-34 garnered widespread support and opposition when its was introduced in 2013.

Although CHCC’s efforts to combat both non-communicable and communicable disease has been a struggle, Muña said that CHCC is committed to building a healthy CNMI and educating CNMI residents about the importance of health screenings and promoting prevention and wellness initiatives.

Muna cited the various outreach activities they did in 2014, additional funding to purchase vaccines, prevention programs for mental health, and an NCD Alliance between various stakeholders to address many of the NCDs in the community.

“Our indigent program, an uncompensated program, even provides access to care to those that cannot afford to pay. While these efforts help, we need additional support to continue to provide such assistance and we also need others to open access to essential drugs. Access to essential drugs that are known to effectively prevent heart disease and stroke is difficult and it leads to patients being readmitted to the hospital or leads to death,” Muña said.