The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A well-known physician has slammed the “dangerous” rhetoric the Government is now employing to sell its National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, and accused it of “putting sparks on dry tinder”.

Dr Duane Sands, the former FNM Senator, told Tribune Business that the Christie administration and its members were employing traditional tactics in a bid to demonise anyone who either opposed NHI or had a viable, sustainable alternative.

Accusing the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) of “pandering” to its so-called ‘grassroots’ base, Dr Sands said its chairman, Bradley Roberts, was employing “class warfare” language to set Bahamians against the medical, insurance and business communities.

He added that, in return for expressing their concerns and offering to help the Government develop more viable healthcare reforms, doctors and insurance industry executives were now being portrayed as “greedy, avaricious” people.

Dr Sands also urged Bahamians “to condemn” comments earlier this week by outspoken Tall Pines MP, Leslie Miller, who called on the Bahamas Insurance Association’s (BIA) chairman, Emmanuel Komolafe, to “haul his ass back to his country and make a contribution there”.

“It has led to very ugly language,” Dr Sands told Tribune Business of the Government’s determination to ignore all advice and support offers, and marginalise the private sector in its bid to ram NHI through.

“We as Bahamians ought to condemn the words of Leslie Miller,” he added, pointing out that Mr Komolafe “has every right to be here” as someone married to a Bahamian, and with children.

Dr Sands said the Government’s attack on NHI critics had continued through Dr Perry Gomez, minister of health, who had questioned “which planet” Marco City MP Greg Moss was on after he said the Bahamas already had universal health coverage via the existing public system.

This is a position understood to be supported by many in the healthcare industry, yet Dr Gomez said Mr Moss’s comments were “ridiculous” and accused him of talking “foolishness”.

Dr Sands branded these comments as “ugly”, and told Tribune Business: “Any individual who says: ‘Hey guys, we may need to look at this again, is labelled uncaring, unkind, unpatriotic and non-Bahamian.

“This is pandering to the perceived base of the PLP, and they have no problem playing class warfare.”

Mr Roberts, in his increasingly frequent missives attacking NHI critics, reiterated his claim that the private health insurance industry wants to create “a cartel” with “unfettered powers to raise premiums to ensure profits”.

He then blamed the sector for “large numbers” of Bahamians currently “begging, borrowing, and hosting cookouts” because they cannot afford health insurance, and called on it to make premiums more affordable.

Mr Roberts returned to the theme that ‘NHI critics are against the needs and interests of poor, average Bahamians’ yesterday with an attack on Opposition leader, Dr Hubert Minnis.

“More than 100,000 Bahamians are in need of access to affordable quality health care and thus far, only the PLP government has designed and is advancing a viable model and executing mechanism for delivery of this vital public good,” the PLP chairman wrote.

“Any legitimate businessman, and the insurance sector, which contributes a significant amount to GDP, they are now greedy, avaricious, horrible human beings,” Dr Sands told Tribune Business of the Government’s rhetoric.

“It’s very unfortunate. I think we just have to keep reminding them this is dangerous. When you ferment these kinds of sentiments, your putting sparks on dry tinder, and it is irresponsible on their part to do it.”