The One Bermuda Alliance pledged to prioritise seniors as part of an election campaign that will work to drive down health costs while incentivising the creation of care facilities and home care provision.

Health and seniors minister Jeanne Atherden was joined by OBA senator Andrew Simons and OBA candidate Simone Barton yesterday morning as they rolled out details of the plan.

The issue of the pension fund caused some controversy with Ms Atherden taking a direct swipe at the Opposition Progressive Labour Party saying it was not the OBA’s intention to “invest in high risk ventures” using the government’s pension fund.

Home affairs Minister Pat Gordon-Pamplin recently referred to PLP plans outlined in the PLP’s Reply to the Budget and its Vision 2025 — released prior to its 2017 platform — to create a Bermuda Fund. Ms Gordon-Pamplin said the plan would see the Opposition “invest more than $70 million of seniors’ pension money in high-risk start-up companies”.

Opposition leader David Burt said in his most recent Budget Reply in reference to Vision 2025: “There is a high level of investment expertise in Bermuda and the next PLP government will take advantage of this expertise by creating a ‘Bermuda Fund’. This fund, which will be seeded with a small portion of the pension funds that are under the control of the government, will allow Bermuda to tap into the investment expertise on the island, while providing an additional outlet for our large pension funds to invest more of their monies in Bermuda-based equity investments.”

However, the PLP issued a statement after today’s press conference saying the OBA’s claim was “based on lies”.

Neville Tyrrell, PLP candidate for constituency 26, said: “The PLP will again say that there is no plan to invest pension money in start-ups. The pension funds are invested by the Public Funds Investment Committee which has strict regulations and does not invest in start-ups.”

Mr Simons said that according to the advice of actuaries, the only way to protect the fund is to ensure that it has adequate money to grow and be able to make those payments when people reach retirement age.

Ms Atherden added: “With respect to pension protection — we will not be investing in high-risk ventures as proposed by the PLP. We understand that the funds are there to be accumulated so that they can produce the benefit and be available to pay pension benefits out to seniors.”

One major issue raised at the press conference on seniors was the creation of an advocacy office that would have the capacity to investigate and intervene on behalf of seniors.

Ms Barton, who is chair of the Bermuda Health Council, said the office would “ensure that our seniors are taken care of and that their interests are protected, and help them to address the specific challenges that result in ageing, diminished capacity and from abuse. We also want to look at developing the capacity to investigate and intervene on their behalves. For us it is very vital for us to protect and help our seniors to move forward.”

The OBA spoke on these measures back in 2015 when the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged was formally renamed Ageing and Disability Services.

Care and home care facilities was presented as a major issue for the ruling party as the hospital buckles under the pressure due to long term patients who should be cared for in the home or at an alternative facility. Incentives were proposed for construction companies looking to build new care facilities, those looking to create homes in existing facilities, and for caregivers who are willing to care for seniors in their home.

Ms Barton added: “We also are going to look and ensure that if hospice care is needed then it can be provided at home. One of the biggest challenges that we have is that the hospital is inundated with people needing hospice care. If that hospice care can be provided in a home setting it would be much better for not only the patient but the family. Most people do not want to go into a hospital and with the OBA we are making sure that [our seniors] are safe and protected and when the time calls for it that they can be loved and cared for at home.”

Ms Atherden said a long term care group has been formed to assess the demand for care facilities in Bermuda outside of the general hospital.

Ms Barton spoke on the creation of caregivers’ resource centre that would provide an allowance as well as practical help and advice for caregivers.

Mr Simons highlighted members of the community who make “great personal sacrifice” to care for loved ones.

Ms Atherden spoke of a crackdown on employers not paying social insurance which is required and pays towards the government pension fund.

“We will put more resources into making sure that employers out there do what they are required to do by law.”

She has also proposed to increase the age at which a senior is required to renew their drivers’ licence from 65 to 70 while tying social insurance pension benefits to the cost of living to ensure that they “don’t lose ground”.

In terms of health are costs, Mr Simons outlined the implementation of the Relative Value Unit methodology.

“As I discussed in the senate, the fees for Standard Health Benefit services particularly for diagnostic imaging services . . . are set by the Relative Value Unit methodology.

“The prices all move together and that is the crucial aspect of it. For the past four years I have been a member of the board of the Bermuda Health Council, chaired the Regulation Sub-Committee, chaired the Finance and Economics committee — the technical staff will always say the fees for some diagnostic imagine services are just out of whack. The RVU methodology allows those fees to move together in a way that is appropriate and it is a methodology that is less susceptible to lobbying for individual price tweaks to services. If someone came in and said I know the fees for X-rays are $100 but I think the fees for sonograms should be $600 when normally the ratio would suggest that they would only be $150m, it is not possible to give those tweaks because we have committed to setting prices in a more rigorous way.

“Reduction in imaging rates as a result of using the RVU methodology gave us $23 breathing room. We were able to expand coverage for at home care for seniors which has been life changing for so many people.”

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