The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A leading businessman yesterday said the Bahamas had to “get Value-Added Tax behind us” before introducing new levies to finance the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, which he praised as in the country’s “best interests”.

Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, told Tribune Business that while he was a “strong supporter” of the principles underlying NHI, it was unclear whether the Bahamian economy would be able to finance the scheme so soon after VAT’s implementation.

The Christie administration is planning to introduce NHI on January 1, 2016, exactly one year after it implemented 7.5 per cent VAT.

With a payroll tax, ranging from 1 per cent to 5 per cent, recommended as the main financing option for NHI, many in the private sector and outside fear that the combined effects will prove too heavy a burden for businesses and individual Bahamians to sustain.

Mr Wilson agreed that it would be “terrible” if NHI was implemented “right on the back” of VAT, but said it was too early to determine whether 12 months would provide adequate breathing space.

“If we did it today, right on the back of VAT, that would be terrible,” he told Tribune Business, although suggesting that the new tax “seems to be settling down”.

Still, Mr Wilson reiterated: “We have to get that [VAT] behind us before we look at new taxes. Will we know by that time [January 2016]? I don’t know.

“I think it’s too soon to know. There’s a lot more debate to take place. If it [NHI} was implemented today, I would say the answer is ‘no’. A year from now, who knows? We just don’t know. A year is a long time.”

Mr Wilson’s comments echo the caution the Government is being urged to adopt with regard to its NHI plans, given the significant tax increases already placed on the private sector and individual Bahamians in recent years.

The three proposed benefits packages for NHI range in total cost from $362 million to $633 million, according to the Government’s consultants, Sanigest Internacional.

Much work remains to be done, though, before NHI becomes a reality. Existing legislation needs to be overhauled, while the public health sector and its infrastructure need major upgrades, all of which suggests that Dr Perry Gomez’s description of the January 2016 implementation deadline as “ambitious” is, in fact, a gross understatement.

Mr Wilson, meanwhile, said he was a great believer in the concept of NHI, and he urged Bahamians to distinguish between those who opposed it on principle and those who were concerned with practical issues.

“I definitely support the principle of NHI,” he told Tribune Business. “I have very little doubt that NHI is in the best interests of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.”

Mr Wilson said he had seen too many persons suffer and/or die as a result of not having health insurance, while even company-sponsored private coverage schemes sometimes did not have the desired effect.

He explained that companies he was invested in were spending several hundred dollars per employee every month to provide them with private health insurance, but many were “not using it because they can’t pay the deductible”.

“If they can’t pay the deductible, why the hell do we keep them in the plan,” Mr Wilson asked. “If the company is paying for you to have this coverage, and you’re obliged to pay the deductible and can’t because you can’t afford it, why pay the policy?”

The well-known businessman said many who had expressed concerns over NHI were not opposed to the concept, but wanted to ensure it operated efficiently and was sustainable.

“It’s very important for the public to differentiate between those opposed as a matter of principle as opposed to those against at the edges,” Mr Wilson told Tribune Business.

“Very few people are opposed to NHI as a principle. I find very few people say NHI is not appropriate public policy. The principle of NHI, I think, is in the best interests of the country.”

The Sunshine Holdings chairman said the debate over NHI was healthy, and expressed optimism that it would produce the best possible healthcare scheme for the Bahamas - much as discussions over VAT had led to the scheme’s alteration for the better.