Bahamas, The

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including The Bahamas market participants, reinsurance and distribution channels. The reports describe classes of business from both individual and group life such as whole life, endowment, term life and unit-linked.
Information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The report describes the public and private healthcare system in The Bahamas, the scope of cover, accessibility financing and provides an analysis of how the public and private systems complement each other.

Axco reports on the three pillars of The Bahamas pension provision.

• State pension benefits including benefit calculations and eligibility criteria 
• Workplace pension provision; types of schemes calculations eligibility and; tax implications
• Voluntary individual pension provision, type of products and tax implications

The Bahamas report provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework governing social security as well as details on financing and eligibility. Information includes but is not limited to

• state pensions,
• permanent disability benefit
• occupational accident and disease
• maternity and paternity payments 

Summary and Trends

Historically the life and healthcare markets in the Bahamas have been strongly influenced by overseas markets, particularly Canada. Generally speaking, those companies writing life business also offer healthcare products. A significant development over recent years has been the emergence of a market leader - Colina Insurance Ltd rin the life insurance sector following a complex sequence of mergers and takeovers.

Summary and Trends

Due to the limited benefits available under the state scheme there is likely to be continuing demand for top-up benefits, although this has so far been somewhat limited due to the economic crisis and, more recently, the introduction of value added tax (VAT). Middle and high-income earners are increasingly turning to the private sector for additional benefits, although ...

Summary and Trends

Although there is hypothetically already universal access to primary care in the public sector, shortages and deficiencies in diagnostic and therapeutic services, particularly pharmaceuticals, have created inequities in the current healthcare sector, and in many instances such services can only be acquired by individuals with the financial ability to purchase them from the private sector. Health is a long-term class of insurance.