The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia

AFTER a rough week that saw doctors condemn his government's handling of National Health Insurance (NHI), Prime Minister Perry Christie made an emotional plea on Friday for residents and stakeholders to trust him.

His comments came as he accepted a Person of the Year award from Jones Communications for expanding the country's tax revenue base by implementing Value Added Tax (VAT).

Weary of stakeholders' anxiety, he said he has requested that a group of health care experts with a footprint in "Canada, United Kingdom and the United States" come quickly to the Bahamas to examine his efforts on NHI.

The group is separate from the government's current consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC) and Sanigest Internacional.

"(I told them to) bring their expertise and review what we're doing and take ownership of the recommendations you will make to me because those are the recommendations I'm taking with me," he said. "We're doing all of this to demonstrate that in governance it is important that we listen, important that we review, important that we decide."

He did not reveal the identity of the group, nor did he indicate if the timeline for NHI implementation will be affected by their expected participation. Currently, the primary health care phase of NHI is scheduled to be implemented in April.

Mr Christie cited the smooth introduction of VAT as a pretext for emphasising that he will always take stakeholders' concerns into consideration while implementing ambitious plans.

He described bringing consultants from New Zealand to this country to soothe people's concerns and to help define the taxation. He also recalled how he postponed the timeline for the introduction of VAT to give the Chamber of Commerce time to analyse what the best form of taxation for the country would be.

"At the end of that process we all determined, public and private sector, that the Ministry of Finance was correct in proceeding with VAT," he said.

With VAT, concerns were widespread until his administration postponed the introduction date to allow greater stakeholder involvement and to educate the public.

In comparing NHI to VAT, Mr Christie has failed to admit that his government's pursuit of the health care scheme has not strictly followed the VAT path, given his government's refusal to reconsider its timeline for introducing NHI despite calls from the business community to do so.

The explosion of criticsm from doctors this week may not have happened, critics say, if the government was not so resolute in sticking to its NHI timeline before working out and explaining all of the details of the scheme.

 "All you have to do is sit in an office and say Prime Minister or minister, I disagree," he said of his critics as he argued that he is open to consulting them. "Why would any government want to waste his time fighting a medical profession or an insurance agency?

"Governments work on the best advice given to them. You can disagree with that advice but you cannot ever stop the government from executing on a project that is manifestly and undeniably in the best interest of people in this country who are the most disadvantaged.

"You may say that you can defeat them at the polls and you may be able to do it. But when consultants tell a government that 700 people die unnecessarily, that in the Bahamas we have the highest rate in the region of diabetes and as a result of the incidence of non-communicable diseases we have shorter lives.

"What do they expect a government to do when faced with an absolute necessity to recognise we're going in the wrong direction with respect to healthcare and the provision of it? The last thing in the world to do is fight because I have to go to those same doctors for me.

"Duane Sands (consultant surgeon) and I might fight but he grew up under me, a Valley Boy. If I get such that's the first person I call for. There is absolutely no intention on forcing anyone into discomfort but in the Bahamas our approach to VAT where the Chamber of Commerce got involved and help us introduce it demonstrates how we should engage in the process of advancing the Commonwealth of the Bahamas."