The Tribune

PRIME MINISTER Christie is so focused on introducing National Health Insurance by January that he resurrected it on Friday — at a funeral of all places.

Mr Christie said that despite public fears, his administration would not institute any form of taxation for NHI prior to July 2016, which is the start of the new fiscal cycle. But what will the taxation be after July, 2016? He didn’t say. We suspect he doesn’t even know.

After three years of the Christie government, this is a tall order for the average Bahamian’s belief system to digest. It is really tilting the scales in the wrong direction. Why should anyone today accept on faith any promise that this government makes — unless, of course, they believe that the majority of Bahamians are still the bottom-of-the-class graduates of their infamous University of Wulff Road (UWR). We wonder how many Bahamians remember those dumbing down days when politicians thought it smart to encourage the “grass roots” not to think for themselves.

However, we suggest that today’s politicians should stop and take stock — today’s “grass roots” are smarter than their UWR predecessors. They are asking questions and they want answers. As we all do. None of us is prepared to accept the word of a politician. Health care professionals, insurance agencies, business owners, labour unions and others who will have to administer and be a part of this plan, have been given no figures with which to decide if, and how badly it might cripple each sector — and eventually the whole country. We have been asked to accept on faith that what is being offered is good for us. “Going forward, with the rollouts, we hope that people will see our full plan and not be affected by it,” said Mr Christie. By then it might be too late to do anything about it.

“A lot of equity will be given to people to know that even though you are living on an island the means are there to ensure that if the need arises you will receive the adequate care,” he said.

Remember the PLP promise that the Christie government if elected had the immediate answer to curbing crime? And, according to now Deputy Prime Minister “Brave” Davis, if elected the Christie government would created 10,000 jobs in its first year in office. Here we are in the third year and all we have seen are layoffs — 2,000 in one operation alone this year. Mr Davis hoped that by the end of its five year term this government would have created 30,000 jobs. Big promises, no delivery.

Here we are today – three years later. This weekend, there were three murders, bringing the murder count to a record 133 for 11 months of this year, and climbing. Of course, we have lost count of the attempted murders, where doctors were able to save the victim’s life. Unless, this carnage is brought under control the demands now being made on our medical services will have so increased that it will not be able to cope with the extra pressure under NHI. People’s expectations of NHI will have been dashed before it will have been given an opportunity to prove itself. Failure from the starting gate is nothing to brag about.

The prime minister said he wanted to avoid unnecessary questions being asked about the quality of service being offered once the government goes to the public for the funding of NHI through a new tax.

This is an insult to our intelligence. No question is “unnecessary” when one is invited to take such a leap of faith — particularly with this government’s track record. We can assure government that The Tribune will sign on to nothing unless it has all of the answers to protect our staff.

In October, Mr Christie said the government was mulling over a new tax to fund NHI. However, he stressed that his administration would do nothing to disrupt the economy.

“We will watch the economy very carefully,” he said.

We think that until the public gets the answers as to how our economy is to be protected, signs should be erected in public places, that warn: “Caveat emptor — buyer beware!”

PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ “review of costs and funding for National Health Insurance in the Bahamas”, which has been kept a closely guarded secret since May, is out, whether officially or unofficially, we are not certain. However, it is a document that should be carefully read by all. It is included in today’s edition of The Tribune.

NHI will be phased in over a five-year period, the government has said.

Officials from Sanigest Internacional, the government’s Costa Rican consultants on NHI, have stated that the scheme could cost up to $633m annually if implemented as a comprehensive package, but if introduced on the low end, NHI could cost around $362m.

The government has allocated $60m for the first phase of NHI.

According to the PWC report: “Implementation of NHI as it is currently proposed has the potential to seriously destabilise both the public and private sectors of the health care system, risking the success of NHI.”

No wonder the government did not want the warning secret out. Our readers are invited to read the report for themselves and draw their own conclusions.