The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Healthcare is not just about having access to your local doctor, or hospital. Healthcare is about the health and welfare of individuals. When we look at healthcare, too often we look at just the ministry of health and what it does. We need to start expanding our view of healthcare to include the Ministry of Works, Ministry of Education and all the ministries of the government because they all have an impact on the health and welfare of the people. I’m sure you’re asking yourself, what am I talking about?

Let’s start with education. When we educate our children on nutrition and the benefit of exercise to take care of themselves we improve their health. They also need to understand the diseases that exist in our country and what they can do to prevent them.

Education also prepares our children for jobs that they will hold in the future, these are the jobs that will allow them to move up in the ranks of our society from lower income to middle-class and eventually, if all goes well, the upper class if they so desire.

As they move up the economic ladder, they depend less and less on the government for their healthcare and more on themselves. That should be the goal for our nation, each individual becoming a productive self-sufficient member of our society.

As Mr Christie stated himself, having money has allowed him to care for his special needs child. So why not create an education system that allows others to do the same. But what this government consistently does is underfund the education system of this nation. Our schools are in deplorable shape and the funding for books and supplies is almost nonexistent compared to the needs of the children.

We tell our children that education is important, but we don’t fund or support it. We tell them healthcare is important, but we don’t give them the tools they need to get ahead in society. The Ministry of Works is involved with healthcare because by fixing potholes and building sidewalks they are preventing accidents from happening. And those are just a couple of many examples of how this ministry can help with healthcare. It is easy to go from ministry to ministry and identify how they are involved with healthcare. But this administration is focused singularly on the ministry health and creating a national health insurance scheme.

Mr Christie said his government has not decided how to fund national health insurance. If it is by further increasing taxes, it will slow the economy even more and push us further into recession. If he decides not to introduce new taxes, he will then reduce funds available for education, road repairs, park developments and other things that add to our healthcare. No matter which way he goes he will hurt the economy and therefore the people of The Bahamas. We need to demand that this government stops focusing only on one aspect of healthcare and start focusing on all aspects of healthcare.

Consultants like Sanigest do one thing and one thing only, they push their agenda and tell the government what they want to hear and get paid handsomely for doing so. It is time we stop focusing on the PLP and Sanigest agenda and focus on the agenda that will help all of the people of the Bahamas.

WAKE UP BAHAMAS

Nassau,

March 6, 2015