Residents and business owners have until tomorrow to register their views with the Government ahead of a new proposed Competition Act.

The move is designed to roll out rules to promote fair competition, attack harmful business behaviour and provide for a review of certain mergers and acquisitions in essential sectors including health.

The Ministry of Health, working with the Bermuda Health Council, will also begin a targeted consultation for reviewing major changes in the country’s healthcare system before they kick in. The consultation is to run until October 2.

The proposed framework is intended to ensure that those impacts are considered early enough for the health system to respond appropriately.

Potential scenarios would be major changes to health insurance premiums or benefits, mergers or changes in ownership, closure or significant reduction of important services, changes in medicine supply, changes to provider payment arrangements and major digital or administration changes affecting access to care.

This work is taking place alongside the Government’s consultation on the proposed Competition Act 2026

Kim Wilson, the Minister of Health, said: “The ministry has a responsibility to ensure that major changes are considered in the context of patient needs and the sustainability of Bermuda’s health system as a whole. This proposed framework would strengthen our ability to do that before significant changes take effect.”

Ricky Brathwaite, the chief executive of the Bermuda Health Council, said it was a matter of timing.

“Too often, government and the wider health system may only learn about a major change once the decision has effectively been made. At that point, there may be very little room to manage the consequences for patients.”

Dr Brathwaite said the framework meant “creating an opportunity to ask the right questions earlier” before “significant changes become difficult to reverse”.

The consultation will involve insurers, the Bermuda Hospitals Board and community providers, pharmacies and pharmaceutical suppliers, professional bodies, employers, unions, patient and senior groups, government agencies, regulators and digital health organisations.

The move follows incidents such as the Argus Group revealing in August 2024 that its primary healthcare practice included 40 per cent of the island’s GPs.

BF&M’s merger with Argus created a domestic insurance powerhouse, Allshores, in January last year, while in February 2023 the Coralisle Group opened its first pharmacy to the public.

Two of the largest grocery groups, The MarketPlace and The Supermart, merged in October 2024.

Statements from the Ministry of Home Affairs for the proposed Act said: “Bermuda operates without a general competition law.

“The consequences are measurable. Grocery prices rose 38 per cent between 2015 and 2025, more than twice the pace of general inflation.

“Two of the island’s three major health insurers amalgamated between 2023 and 2025 without any competitive review and, in February 2026, the merged group directed high cost prescriptions to a single pharmacy group.

“The island’s largest grocery chains merged in October 2024 without reviews.”

It added: “A government survey of Bermudian emigrants found the cost of food, housing and utilities and of healthcare to be the top three reasons people leave.

“These pressures fall on seniors, families and small businesses first.”