Official Opposition Leader Philip 'Brave' Davis.
By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
ACTING Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said while the Christie administration is concerned about possible job losses due to the implementation of National Health Insurance, the scheme is designed to absorb any possible fallout in the private insurance sector.
Mr Davis added that the government is not discussing delaying the roll-out of NHI amid criticism that the public healthcare system will not be ready to meet the government’s self imposed implementation date of January 1, 2016.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mr Davis said while officials are listening to industry experts, the government is resolute in ensuring that every Bahamian will have access to healthcare and medical services.
This comes after The Tribune reported on Tuesday that a high level stakeholder in the health insurance industry warned that as many as 1,000 people will join the unemployment line if the Christie administration moves forward with NHI without incorporating the Bahamas Insurance Association’s recommendations.
Asked about this, Mr Davis said: “First of all our government is always concerned about any job losses happening today. (But) we expect that the implementation of NHI will be able to absorb any fall out from private insurance companies because the plan is to design the plan to minimise any fall out.
“We are listening to what people are saying, but we are resolute in ensuring that every Bahamian will have access to healthcare and medical services. The time has long past for persons to die because they can’t afford to go to a doctor. The time has long passed that a citizen of this country has to choose between whether to pay a child’s school fee or whether to buy food rather than attend the doctor to take care of their health. I think that is our mantra and that is where we are headed.”
He continued: “There are no talks about delaying. We are listening but we have not talked about delaying the implementation.”
The minister of works also responded to critics who have lashed out at the government for failing to reveal what NHI will cost. He said the government is not prepared to reveal the cost until it has properly made assessments and evaluations.
“There will be costs associated with the implementation and I think it is premature to determine what that cost will be.
“There are a number of what I call services that the government is now providing for free and paying for now for its citizens. We are going to assess and evaluate it and then determine.”
According to Sanigest Internacional, the government’s Costa Rican consultants on NHI, the scheme could cost up to $633m if implemented as a comprehensive package. On the low end, NHI could cost around $362m.
However a report recently completed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on NHI has criticised Sanigest’s findings.
The report by PwC stated that the Bahamian healthcare system is “not ready” for NHI, and will face a major challenge in coping with “an initial surge in demand” for services.
It added that the demand-driven rise in healthcare costs will impose “significant pressure” on the Christie administration to either increase taxes, or re-allocate spending away from other high priority public services to finance NHI.
On this, Mr Davis said: “The discrepancy between Sanigest and PricewaterhouseCoopers – it is said there is a debate of whether there was a discrepancy or whether who is right. I do not get into that at all. All I know is like I said the time is long passed for our citizens to be wondering if they get sick (are) they are not going to be able to take care of themselves.”
On Monday, The Tribune’s source said job cuts are likely because the industry anticipates many Bahamians will terminate their current health insurance coverage in anticipation of getting free healthcare under the government’s scheme.
Speculation about the packages and benefits the government may offer under its scheme exists because the Christie administration has not specified what will be included when NHI comes on stream next year.
With a month until NHI’s proposed start date, the health insurance industry hopes the government abandons its plans to establish a public insurer.
Comments
banker 8 years, 5 months ago
Let's go for it. This is like accelerant such as gasoline on a fire. We need a total destruction of the economy before we can start anew, and this will make help it along to anarchy.
It will create more jobless. The good bits is that there will be a bigger, massive brain drain, and the doctors now will emigrate to places where there are doctor shortages. Lawyers will starve, which is good. A thousand of them mouldering in the grave or at the bottom of the ocean, is a good start.
Accountants will sell phone cards and guineps on the corner to survive. Domestic insurance companies will lose a quarter to a half of their business, putting higher paid workers out on the street to join their Baha Mar service worker colleagues. The PLP will find a way to make money -- usually by smuggling Bahamians into the US.
Total destruction of the middle class and upper middle class will result. All of this is better than living in a slow hell of erosion and decline. This will accelerate change due to the fact that everything will collapse and the old, corrupt, non-functioning system will be in pieces, never to rise again. Bring it on! Let's get this sad state of affairs over with for once and for all.
marrcus 8 years, 5 months ago
I agree, rock bottom is close already. If Izzy ties up the liquidation in a power play out of the London hearings, rock bottom coming quick for PGC. Part of me wants to see BaMar implode again. Rock bottom will clean all houses, Forensic Audits to follow, we will have to build a new prison for sure.
TruePeople 8 years, 5 months ago
Or, in a state of lawless anarchy, Drug dons will rise and rule the street, any 'new' politicians will be in their pocket, and the simple citizens will be on the warzone front lines between the US and the South American Drug Kartels.
Instead of local police, the US would send 'peace keeping forces' here, ie. US Army will create their OWN law here OVER us... and life will be pretty crappy across the board....
Not the future i want....
jackbnimble 8 years, 5 months ago
Sounds like a frying pan to fire situation. Private insurance costs an arm and a leg to maintain and the private insurers go up on the premiums every year. They and the doctors have been milking the system for years. Guess that's why the poor can't afford it.
Now you have the government sticking it's hand in and saying they will give universal health insurance. Do they have any idea how many sick people are out there and how many will actually now need the insurance? So guess what? When the true costs hits them, they will be just like the private insurers. They gonna go up and up on the salary deductions to sustain it and we the taxpayers will be left footing the bill.
In insurance the only persons that ever win are the insurers. The consumer always gets stuck with the high premium and the lack of true coverage.
GrassRoot 8 years, 5 months ago
Jack I agree, but you need to understand that there are a lot of donations for medication for poor people (.e.g the Clinton Foundation), and large portions of these donations don't make it to the entitled (poor) recipients. Health care in government hands is a breeding ground for corruption. There are other, better ways to deal with that than to nationalize health care (by a corrupt government already). so we tell people it is ok to gamble away the money in money houses, and in return they get free health insurance? what kind of screwed up concept is that? there is more wrong here than just poor people not having access to decent health care.
jackbnimble 8 years, 5 months ago
I agree with you. But there's blame to be had on both sides. We have a corrupt health care system already with the insurers and doctors milking persons with private insurance. We have a corrupt Government that will probably use the money for everything except helping the persons that need it most (see NIB). The consumer/taxpayer is just piggy in the middle. Insurers don't want to lose their cash cow and Government wants an excuse to get more of our money. They are painting a picture that "Everybody Wins". In this case only the Government or the insurance companies win.
GrassRoot 8 years, 5 months ago
Albeit DPM is credible when he says that the Government is concerned about job losses, there is simply no way the Government has the know how or the sophistication to design a plan that takes a job loss into consideration in any other way than to hire people that got laid off by the private insurance business. It will create lower paying jobs, will destroy peoples motivation and increase the footprint the government has in the economy. Basically everything THIS government would not want to happen. One of the few things that works in the Bahamas is the insurance industry, why the Government would put its fingers on this is beyond my comprehension. What this government needs to do first and foremost is to get a grip on spending and fiscal restraint.
Honestman 8 years, 5 months ago
Totally agree. Look at the mess government made when it tried its hand in the banking industry with Bank of The Bahamas. Health Insurance is way more complex and this government could not run a corner shop far less a health insurance industry.
asiseeit 8 years, 5 months ago
yep, just like VAT would not affect our economy in a negative way, NHI will be a savior to the Bahamian people. Anyone who believes a peep that comes out of the Governments mouth is a fool. Just look at what VAT has done to the real estate market, down by 50% while government revenue from real estate is down 70%. These politicians are hell bent on destroying the middle class and the economy. Their goal is to have ALL Bahamians destitute and at the mercy of our FAILURE of a government. Tell me ONE government scheme that is not a total failure, festering with corruption, saddled with waste, and mismanaged by political appointees who are unable to get jobs in the real world. That is exactly what NHI will be while also the straw that will break The Bahamas back. As Banker says maybe we do need to hit rock bottom before the Bahamian people wake up. Also then maybe we can jail some of these corrupt politicians or even better hang them for treason.
Honestman 8 years, 5 months ago
Maybe the PLP sees Zimbabwe as the role model country? Brother Mugabe has ensured that only the party faithful get their daily bread and government's family and friends get to share the spoils of power. Sound familiar? NHI is a complete smokescreen. It is not about improving the lives of Bahamians but all to do with pulling the wool over the eyes of the uneducated masses in a lust to remain in power.
sansoucireader 8 years, 5 months ago
Definitely not maybe. The similarities between the Bahamas and other former colonies are amazing.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 5 months ago
There is a big difference between the Ingraham Drugs Plan and paying for medical services provided at government-owned health facilities ............. How can Brave speak for Perry who has taken over NHI from Ole Gomez??????? ........... When Perry gets back, I hope Brave will not have to backtrack on these statements ........... he should have just spilt all of the beans one time.
Economist 8 years, 5 months ago
Does anyone know the real reason why they have to introduce this in January?
banker 8 years, 5 months ago
Because Sanigest and all the political hangers-on want to collect their commission.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 5 months ago
Soooo, Brave is going to hire more civil servants?????? ........... but how will the government pay for a NHI plan without taxing us??????? ........ we are paying for SLOP Airport......... we are paying for NIB unemployment relief ...........we are paying for VAT ............ we are going to pay for the newBEC bailout ........... and now we are being asked to pay for NHI???????? What frigging else???? Then add on the hidden taxes that we have been paying for decades ........... SMT
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 5 months ago
Now that fella has got some short stubby grubby dirty sticky fingers!
TalRussell 8 years, 5 months ago
Comrades rather than argue over the nickels and dimes required to fund Universal Health Care, I say we refocus to begin the march onward, forward into the 2017 General polling stations - prepared to only elect a wiser and smarter slate of "candidates" who must be prepared to "repossess" ownership our second island city of Freeport. To reake every private beach across Bahamaland, all undeveloped crown lands and to take take back ownership and to utilize to the exclusive benefit of citizens - the "stockpiles of natural resources" to ensure every citizen in Commonwealth of The Bahamaland becomes an multi-millionaire before the 2022 General bell does get's rung.
banker 8 years, 5 months ago
I don't see how what you describe can happen. I was once sent to Moscow for a conference, and one chap was telling me an interesting story. A huge concern owning acres of land in the Kamchatka Peninsula was "taken back" by the local government from a Russian oligarch who got the business and the land for a song during the Boris Yeltsin years. The land was re-distributed to the long suffering denizens of the town. The first thing that happened was that the people who got the land, sold it for a quick profit to buy luxury crap. I can see this happening in the Bahamas. If a bunch of people from Excellence Estates get a piece of land from a wealth re-distribution effort, you can bet that they would sell it to whomever crossed their palms with 30 pieces of silver -- foreigners included.
What most people don't realise, is that the wealth of nations resides between the ears of its citizens. People have to be economically free to chase their dreams and create wealth, and all Bahamians are still economic slaves.
We have a patrician government who stymies business and gets its piece of every possible revenue stream through corruption. We have a non-convertible currency. We do not have access to capital or venture capital. We do not have access to Big Data or any other empowering knowledge streams. We have a poorly educated populace that is still not weaned from sucking on someone else's teat.
We have a poor self-esteem as entrepreneurs and the government keeps it that way. In spite of the pablum of "Bahamas for Bahamians", it is the foreigners who make the wealth from this country. That wealth has nothing to do with resources or anything -- it is the wealth from exploitation of Bahamians who do not believe in themselves or their abilities to go forth and conquer in the business domain.
The irony is that the Bahamas can be saved, but those who hold the reins of power either cannot figure out how to do it, or want to relinquish their grasp on the public treasury. Sad.
It took Jamaica three years to collect the money to build two technology parks. Those parks are now full with all kinds of ICT businesses, including the core call centers. They have created an ICT sector in their economy that contributes millions to their GDP. We Bahamians don't believe that we can be saved or do not have in the faith in our abilities to save ourselves. If we did, Perry Gladstone Christie and his band of merry kleptocrats would be strung up in Rawson Square and vilified by the populace.
TalRussell 8 years, 5 months ago
Comrade Banker not the case if you sign over all crown lands to be retained as generational property. Believe me the prime Cable Beach lands signed over by the red regime over izmirlian's Baha Mar, if made be paid for would fund Universal Health Care for a number of years. You would not be handing citizens lump sum cash payments of million dollars but quarterly payments based upon resources revenues - which could be capped not exceed fixed amount. The intent is not make your citizens cash wealthy but financially independent.
Economist 8 years, 5 months ago
So having taken all this land and businesses back which will result in the collapse of the economy and the starving of desperate Bahamian citizens who have will now have inherited land that is, with a few exceptions not suitable for economical agriculture, what do you do?
Oh yes, I know, free National Health Insurance. Opps, no money to pay for it.
We are part of a big world.
Sorry to dissolution you Tal but, The Bahamas can't survive without the rest of the world, it can't survive in isolation. The Bahamas is not the world.
Lenin, Stalin, and Castro have all tried what you advocate......didn't work.
TalRussell 8 years, 5 months ago
Comrade Economists you talking like this would be something Lenin, Stalin, and Castro new for Bahamaland. Not at all, we just call it by other names - corruptible politicians of all stripes holding power of we things of value.
Crown Land parcels, including entire islands, started disappearing under the Bay Street Boys and UBP.
Public access beaches declared off-limits under PLP.
Nation's valuable natural resources sold/ leased off for pennies on the dollar under the red shirts - yet neither the people nor the public treasury have financially benefited.
I say let the people bring some that Lenin, Stalin, and Castro to themselves to hold power over their own damn lands and natural resources - cause them politicians going sell it anyways.
The_Oracle 8 years, 5 months ago
Listen, blaming red shirts or Yellow bellies is the first distraction: They are both made up of Bahamians who either are a) stupid, b) arrogant c) crooked d) greedy e) all of the above, who have made repeated wrong decisions over the last 40+ years which have landed us right where we are. (And we deserve it, cause we all danced in the streets with one or the other) All the while destroying the structures of Government left to us by The British Empire. For better or worse it is what we had, and we have replaced it with nepotism, tribalism, persecution, pilfering, (land, treasury, other peoples property and destroying personal initiative) and we like shooting messengers. We hire foreign consultants ad nauseam and ignore their findings, twist reports beyond recognition and present the latest folly as sent from above. The foreign consultants go away paid in full so they are happy and could care less how you use their reports. Did I mention kickbacks? I am led to believe the latest is tied into the ATR-600 aircraft recently purchased for Bahamasair. Who got that refund? Ministry of tourism advertising kickbacks? The extraordinary cost per Sq Ft the government pays to build anything including outhouses! for once and for all, it is the un-ethical, thieving lying Bahamian people we elect that is the #1 problem, and the crooked civil servants that go along with them like fries with the KFC! And until that calibre of people is drastically improved, it is going to get worse and worse! Because there is less and less to steal. Less foreigners to nickel, dime, and rip off and a smaller Bahamian working middle class.
Honestman 8 years, 5 months ago
A perfect summary of our corrupt little nation.
B_I_D___ 8 years, 5 months ago
Read between the lines...the NHI is now the new government employment agency...they don't have BEC or BTC any more...NHI will end up with every dead beat unemployable persons who are guaranteed a PLP vote.
Honestman 8 years, 5 months ago
Not only that, it will be staffed by overseas doctors from poor countries who probably won't speak good English and will be happy to work for lower pay. Meanwhile all the best Bahamian doctors will be off to practice in Florida. Try getting an appointment to see a specialist under NHI. So all those currently insured under private schemes will end up paying more for a much worse service.
B_I_D___ 8 years, 5 months ago
Ask you average UK citizen how long it takes to get a referral to a specialist for anything other than a life threatening ER type issue...
B_I_D___ 8 years, 5 months ago
The irony is...in the UK, you could wait months or years for a referral/consultation for the NHS...but if you have private health care, that consult can happen the next day...and more often than not, it is the EXACT same doctor!!
happyfly 8 years, 5 months ago
You are dead right BID. It all makes perfect sense now. The greedy pigs are panicking that they wont be able to write checks to themselves and give their looser friends jobs so they are creating the next generation of a public corporation disaster
B_I_D___ 8 years, 5 months ago
Don't get me wrong, in a perfect world, run by honest individuals, an NHI system would be wonderful, but it's not, and for a government official who abused the previous government corporations in the past with over staffing, to turn around and make a statement that NHI will absorb the job losses...well that's just a major nail in the coffin right there. It will end up being an over staffed, poorly run operation by people given job positions for political favours.
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