By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunmedia.net
SEVEN months before the government’s proposed implementation of National Health Insurance, Health Minister Dr Perry Gomez said yesterday officials will not reveal the details of the first phase of the scheme until the 2015/2016 budget has been presented in the House of Assembly.
Following this, Dr Gomez said the government “will move forward with gusto” to ensure Bahamians are well informed of the scheme’s details.
He suggested that the Christie administration was on track to meet its self-imposed deadline of January 2016 to rollout the first stage of the health care programme.
“We will not discuss that (NHI) in any detail until after the budget of this year,” Dr Gomez said, “which will be completed by May and be presented in June. We will (then) be moving forward with great gusto subsequent to that.”
In March, while speaking to a group of College of the Bahamas students, Prime Minister Perry Christie hinted that Bahamians will likely pay a premium of around two to three dollars to fund NHI. However, he gave no details.
It is said that the scheme could cost up to $633m annually if implemented as a comprehensive package. On the low end, NHI could cost around $362m.
His remarks came days after a major report on NHI was leaked before the government’s release of the summary.
In that report, given to the government last October, Costa Rican consultants Sanigest Internacional presented options for financing universal health care.
According to the report, of which The Tribune has a copy, the consultants suggested a payroll tax ranging from one per cent to five per cent to finance NHI.
The report also explores various other revenue-raising options, including levying a “sin tax” on alcohol and tobacco that would, the report estimates, yield some $64.93m in NHI revenues in 2016, an estimate the report concedes is at the high end.
Another option identified is a tax on auto insurance premiums and increasing the wage ceiling for National Insurance Board (NIB) contributions.
In the aftermath of the report’s leak to the media, Mr Christie denied that the government had made any decisions to impose additional taxes.
He told reporters that he was amazed by the direction that the discussions surrounding NHI had taken.
At the time, the Prime Minister said the government was still receiving advice on how to develop the universal health care scheme.
Mr Christie and several of his MPs have maintained that too many people die in this country because they cannot afford quality health care.
The government has come under fire from the FNM, which has said Bahamians cannot afford additional taxes to fund NHI.
Comments
Economist 8 years, 11 months ago
What he means is "You won't know until it is too late because if I gave you the details you would be able to figure out what a bad deal it is for you."
This is very bad. He has not proved to the voter that he has solved the mess in the Public Hospitals Authority. That is why there have been no disclosure of the audit reports. That is why the cost of NHI will be more than the public can afford.
The PHA is a public authority and it accounts should be published each year so that the public can see how their money is spent.
John 8 years, 11 months ago
Do they still require food/restaurant workers to produce health certificates? There is one pizza joint that seems to hire anyone off the streets to toss their pizzas. Persons know to have communicable diseases are working there... Land making pizzas! And they try to hide when persons who know their situation walk in.
ohdrap4 8 years, 11 months ago
pizza and bread is ok, goes in the oven. (Ever see bread in those middle eastern markets covered with flies? the dry bread does not make you sick.
the real trouble would be contamination from mayoneese and icing, like cakes and all.
duppyVAT 8 years, 11 months ago
SleepyPG is waiting on Sanigest to give him the details ........................... BOL
Honestman 8 years, 11 months ago
So let's get this right. 7.5% VAT is supposed to earn the public purse some $200 million in additional revenue (according to government) but an NHI scheme which at the top end could cost $633 million per annum will cost Bahamians "two or three dollars" according to the Prime Minister. Either arithmetic is not PGC's strong point or he is banking on his supporters being numerically illiterate.
John 8 years, 11 months ago
There are people working in good services who have absolutely no training in food safety and proper sanitation. Long hair with no hair nets, long and dirty fingernails, handling money and food at the same time, no washing of hands after using the restroom and just day to day general hygiene.
John 8 years, 11 months ago
The NHI is essentially saying that public health care will no longer be free.
TheMadHatter 8 years, 11 months ago
That is good - because we cannot continue as a nation to provide free health care to a foreign invasion force.
TheMadHatter
asiseeit 8 years, 11 months ago
So once they tell us how they are going to waste/mismanage/steal our money they will slap us upside the head with a new tax for health services that no one will receive except illegal immigrants and their children. Go to the PMH and tell me I lie! Bahamians getting swing again.
Economist 8 years, 11 months ago
TheMadHHatter, the reason that the immigrants are getting all this free care is because the Public Hospitals Authority is not doing what it is supposed to do.
When a person says they can't pay, the PHA is supposed to get Social Services to certify that and Social Services is supposed to pay the PHA.
The NHI will not solve any of this. NHI is just going to make more money available for the immigrants.
They need to fix the PHA before they begin to think of NHI. Perry Gomez says he is going to fix PHA just like Perry Christie said that he would pass a Fiscal Responsibilities Act and Freedom of Information Act.
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