Shane Gibson
By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
NATIONAL Insurance and Labour Minister Shane Gibson yesterday criticised the Consultant Physician Staff Association for not supporting National Health Insurance, suggesting that the senior doctors are more interested in “making the mighty dollar” than saving lives.
Mr Gibson, the minister with responsibility for NHI’s registration campaign, suggested that the Consultant Physician Staff Association (CPSA) and other NHI critics have resorted to adopting an attitude of “if I can’t have it my way, then I’m going to tell the public I’m not a part of the process.”
He added that the CPSA is afraid to express its “true feelings” on NHI for fear that “the public will say they’re greedy and have no conscience.”
Still he said the CPSA’s position will not deter the government from conducting the NHI rollout, adding that the government will not allow any one person or group to hold it “hostage” over NHI.
“And so for those persons who are not on board that’s their right,” Mr Gibson said. “If they think that making the mighty dollar is more important than saving lives, I can’t kill them for that, everybody’s entitled to their opinion.”
“But our plan is to carry on with universal healthcare. And so we know for a fact that we will never be able to get everybody on board, but this is the right thing to do and we will be doing it.”
On Sunday, CPSA President Dr Lockley Munroe told The Tribune that the association, which represents roughly 110 senior doctors in the country’s public health system, would “not sign on or agree to go forward with any NHI registration” unless the NHI committee is “willing to respect our input into the whole system.”
Dr Munroe said the CPSA’s decision, which came after a five-hour long meeting with doctors at the Breezes resort, was due to the government’s dogmatic decision to rollout NHI despite the “current failings” in the health system, as well as the absence of key information pertaining to NHI.
Dr Munroe also accused the government of “ignoring and marginalising” doctors during the process.
“If I didn’t want to do something, I could find you a thousand excuses right now why I’m not going to support it,” Mr Gibson said in response. “I’ve been in meetings with stakeholders who I saw in the paper subsequent to that, who said that they had no meetings with us. And so no meetings and no consultation in my mind to them means ‘if I can’t have it my way, then I’m going to tell the public I’m not a part of the process.’”
He added: “…This is something they always say when they don’t want to express their true feelings, vague statements like ‘poor consultation.’ They know if they say what they feel, the public will say they’re greedy and have no conscience. They will tell you ‘yes’ they support the initiative but then they give you a litany of reasons they can’t support the plans.”
Mr Gibson also said that the government would not seek to “compete” with dissenting stakeholders but would instead offer “alternatives for those that we thought would be a part of it initially.”
“And so if all of the (healthcare) providers give access to everybody as we anticipate, then we would have less of a role to play,” he said. “If we have sufficient providers who say to us, like the ones who met at Breezes, who tell us in advance we’re not going to support it, then we have to prepare for it.”
He added: “We have medical doctors on staff at all of our healthcare facilities. We have medical facilities and healthcare providers who said to us – publicly and privately – that they support it. And so all I’m saying is, it is each individual’s right to support or not support. And whether they support or don’t support, we are introducing National Health Insurance.”
NHI registration began yesterday at National Insurance Board outlets in New Providence, including the JL Centre on Blake Road; the Town Centre Mall; and the Enoch Beckford Memorial Auditorium on Carmichael Road.
Centres are also open at NIB offices in Grand Bahama and the Family Islands.
Comments
sheeprunner12 8 years, 3 months ago
THE GALL OF THIS MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ................... he is complaining about greed while sitting around the table with PLP politicians (and cronies), the Chinese and his fellow trade unionists ........ what a joke ................ he needs to insist that the same NHI price ceiling model be placed on the professional lawyers, accountants, insurers etc. ................. he is so disingenuous
Sickened 8 years, 3 months ago
What he needs to do is cap what politicians charge under the table. Apparently the $50k the secretary at the PM's office charged to get on a list for retail space at Bahamar isn't criminal??? But doctors charging fees for services rendered is wrong? WTF!
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 3 months ago
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proudloudandfnm 8 years, 3 months ago
Shane can kiss my ass with this dumb ass Fox news attack....
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 3 months ago
I wonder how many of the PLP politicians are in there for the love of the people they serve. They may not get the money out of the treasury but they sure get it from somewhere. How many got soft mortgages from BOB. How many of their family members get sweet deals to line their pockets. Thinking of Stefan and the other son who got the pools and waterways contract at Baha Mar. The AG's husband and daughters with six retail shops at Baha Mar. How many other places. I hear Max Gibson has shops up and down Bay Street. But none of these are greedy ! And Shame himself is all over the Internet with sordid stories of big spenders getting special favours from foreign bomb shells. But our Doctors are GREEDY ? REALLY ?
Islandgirl 8 years, 3 months ago
Let me understand this: this is their profession, their livelihood, you want to effectively proceed with a hostile takeover and use this as a vote catcher, they see through this, object, and THEY are the problem? You have the heart to call someone else greedy? The absolute audacity. I'm almost speechless. Do not garnish my wages to pay for this. I want no part of it. What I do want an explanation of is how you rose from a union leader to a multimillionaire with many businesses while under the auspices of public service as a member of parliament and cabinet minister. Once you have cleared that up, perhaps then we can have a substantive discussion on greed.
TalRussell 8 years, 3 months ago
Comrades this is for all you who don't have a problem with the run-a-way insurance premiums insurance companies have gotten away with charging.
Considering local insurance companies have been selling their products in Bahamaland ever since the 1800's, had they offered insurance at the right price to all comers with no age, medical or health qualifying conditions, there would be no need for a government administrated BahamaCARE Healthcare Plan.
Comrades, we all would have lined up to buy insurance coverage at the right price. Who in their right minds wouldn't want to have kept the government's political hands off the healthcare business.
Comrades don't you thinks from the 1800's is long enough for insurers to have gotten their run-a-way premiums act together? All I can say, the PM should tell every damn one them and the doctors too, where to go to stuff their opposition to BahamaCARE.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 3 months ago
Good point Tal ................. but the same argument can be applied to every sector of society ............ it was Pindling who said it was necessary to pay politicians after 1967 ........... and his reason??????? ..... then listen to Fred Mitchell cry and whine about the low salaries and perks given to politicians today .............. but they continue to want to hang on to those "low paying" posts for whatever reason ......... Perry is into his seventies now ..... SMDH
Tarzan 8 years, 3 months ago
Tal, why blame the insurers? It is the cost of medical care that causes insurance rates to go up. Blaming the insurers is like blaming the newspapers for our crime epidemic in the Bahamas because they write about it. Insurers have to price policies so they can pay the benefits and still have enough profit to continue to operate.
What is silly about this totally opaque National Health Insurance plan is that it can offer all kinds of medical benefits but if there are no medical professionals willing to provide the promised services, or if the facilities are not made available for them to practice competently, at the payment levels the plan promises, you have accomplished NOTHING. Welcome to the world of Obamacare. Welcome to the long lines and long waits and inferior care supplied by the oft vaunted Canadian Single Payer System. None of these systems work. They all provide nothing but inferior service for those who cannot pay for good quality service. This is a scam, politicians worldwide like to pull on ignorant voters. They promise or "mandate" low cost health care but can deliver nothing but the "promise". Health care is provided by doctors and nurses, not cabinet ministers.
Nalevan 8 years, 3 months ago
Excuse me? Canada's system doesn't work? Why, then, does it consistently rank higher than the US? Why does every single country that has at least some form of basic universal health care rank better than the privatized system in the US? Frankly, you seem to have no idea what you're talking about. I live in Canada right now. The quality of care is superb, I don't even have extended or dental. Where you run into issues in Canada is that it is a sparsely populated nation with large swathes of rurality, so obviously accessibility to extended care or specialists is limited. Rationing healthcare is admittedly a minor problem, but no where near as bad as right wingers and libertarians make it seem. I really really don't want to get into all of the despicable predatory practices a privatized system like the US leaves itself intentionally wide open to. No one in a single payer system EVER has to worry about going bankrupt from a health issue. The UK is consistently ranked as one of, if not THE best system, and it is wholly public. Same with The Netherlands.
You are partially right that it is supposed to be the insurance agencies that simply react to the cost of healthcare, but why on earth is everything a million times more expensive in the privatized system of the US? MAYBE, just MAYBE treating health care like a normal good that follows the normal rules of supply and demand is a bad idea?? One of the biggest reasons health care inflation is so staggering in the US is because even though they don't have a public system, the amount of people that simply cannot pay, whether they never had insurance or their company pulls a fast one on them, falls on the insurance companies. And so they raise rates to compensate and a vicious cycle is created. The cost of everything health care related down to the hospital gown are inflated, and so many people just go without insurance. They only recently made it illegal to deny someone coverage due to a pre-existing condition. The ER is mandated to treat everyone, regardless of insurance. That alone means that you will have people that have put off the financial burden of their health for so long, it's gotten vastly worse and now they won't be able to pay for their ER visit. It's insanity. Americans already foot the bill for their poor, they just do it in an incredibly inefficient and costly way. Why? Because their insurance companies have their claws in congress. It's blatant. And they price fix. And collude. And so on and so forth because health care is not a normal good.
As for the article, I will admit I've only paid peripheral attention to Bahamian politics and it seems like this is a vote grab. It's hard to say if the Bahamas is ready to support a system like this. That doesn't mean, though, that it is not something we should be working toward. Universal healthcare is the eventual answer, and it has proven that in other nations. So, don't lie, please.
dahasamo 8 years, 3 months ago
Well now everything is going to be just all right. PMH will be functioning efficiently, all the health services will be provided in a clean environment, drugs will not run out, the morgue will be brought up to speed and all this without involving the greedy doctors and insurance companies.
TalRussell 8 years, 3 months ago
Comrade Dhasamo is PMH a mess, very much so. But with or without BahamaCare, whatever political party's government is in power they will have to address it with the uttermost urgency. will and skill and continue to address for hundreds years.
Hospitals and healthcare will still be evolving to meet the growing and demanding needs patients long after every living person across our nation of islands are long dead, dead.
Honestman 8 years, 3 months ago
He added that the CPSA is afraid to express its “true feelings” on NHI for fear that “the public will say they’re greedy and have no conscience.”
What an absolute hypocrite this man is!!! He and his party have no shame whatsoever. But let's get one thing straight - they are NOT stupid. They are cunning, conniving, greedy, and dishonest but NOT STUPID. YOU who vote for them are STUPID.
Thankfully our physicians are intelligent enough to out maneuver this bunch. If the consultants and the vast majority of general practitioners refuse to sign up for this farce then the government will be forced to back track despite the bluster of propagandists like Gibson. Then the country can sit down and build a properly thought out strategic plan as to how we, together, are going to build a National Health Service that is affordable AND sustainable.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 3 months ago
Can anyone remember the Pindling's PMH before there was a Physicians' Alliance (under Ingraham)?????? ................... anyone care to comment on that????????
TalRussell 8 years, 3 months ago
Comrades there is one shocker that jumps at me. It now appears the PLP cabinet knew lots about what was going behind the illegal blocked out windows and security doors at the numbers houses? Yet, although policed for over hundred years by government, recent media reports makes it seems likes the wide reach of the insurance companies operations are largely unknown to government?
I am also inclined to think that far too many policy holders have been getting elaborate expensive procedures. Some may think too many of these elaborate expensive procedures are recommended and performed, largely because lots patients walk in with the over-insured marks tattooed across their foreheads?
HarryWyckoff 8 years, 3 months ago
You're an idiot, spreading conspiracy theories that make zero sense.
Firstly, insurance agencies have to go through a whole lot more red tape than any other business type every year just to renew their business licenses. They must undergo full audits every year. They have to provide huge amounts of additional information on their business.
To the government.
Secondly, they actually make money when people they sell policies to dont make claims.
When people make claims, the insurance companies have to pay for the procedures they covered. Thus losing money.
Please, stop your nonsense and actually learn about something before you post your irrational conspiracy junk here.
There is not a single country that has a successful National Health scheme.
Anywhere.
In the world.
Even countries that aren't run by thieves.
Yet you think these clowns will somehow pull off what no other country has, even after they've raised sales taxes to three times our, *on top of * 30-50% income tax on every citizen?
You're a moron.
Nalevan 8 years, 3 months ago
"There is not a single country that has a successful National Health scheme.
Anywhere.
In the world."
This is a straight up lie. Google it for yourself, the most successful health care programs are public. Stop lying.
cmiller 8 years, 3 months ago
Best joke ever! Politicians calling people greedy!!! SMDT
John 8 years, 3 months ago
So when is the dorm at Bamsi going to be rebuilt and who is paying for it?
realfreethinker 8 years, 3 months ago
Once NHI is in place for those of you who need an operation won't have to wait for 7 months you will now only have to wait for 1 year. It will give the you an opportunity to die so the government don't have to spend that money on your healthcare. That is where these a..h..es are taking us. WE just have absolute morons and crooks,thieves running our country
TalRussell 8 years, 3 months ago
Comrade Realfreethinker you should knows you make me worry about you when you managed bring the late PM Pindling into BahamaCARE discussion is most baffling?
realfreethinker 8 years, 3 months ago
TalRussell I never mentioned Pindling in my post you need to re-read
TalRussell 8 years, 3 months ago
Comrade my bad. Meant direct at Sheeprunner 12 who seems have whacked form of tenderness for the former PM.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 3 months ago
TAL ............thank God for Ingraham reforms at PMH/MOH........ imagine what this country would have been like if Perry (as PM) had followed Pindling??????
Can you remember when rats used to run down the aisles in PMH back in the 1980s????? OHHHHHHHHH how we forget that era after 1992.
SP 8 years, 3 months ago
.......... 55 Ministers, bankers and businessmen stole $9 Billion from Nigeria's economy ....
http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-ministe...">http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-ministe...
How many $Billions have ministers, friends, family and lovers stolen from Bahamas economy?
Godson 8 years, 3 months ago
Wow... Boy!!!.. you guys ain playing... Wow these comments got my ears ringing...
GrassRoot 8 years, 3 months ago
A doctor, like a lawyer or a dentist are business models. Thanks to the failed Gov of the Bahamas, as a student that graduates from high school locally is not an asset to anybody but a liability to begin with. So to move from liability to asset side, the student or his parents or a third party, or a bank will lend money or invest in this student, until he becomes a Doctor, Lawyer, Dentist. Now, I must ask the Hon. Mr. Minister, why in the world, would the student, now graduated Doctor, Lawyer, Dentist, give even more to the failed Government of the Bahamas by forfeiting income? If half of the population is acting stupid that does not mean the other half has act stupid too.
John 8 years, 3 months ago
"The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best." "A politician is just like a pickpocket; it's almost impossible to get him to reform."
Joseph Sobran: "The difference between a politician and a pickpocket is that a pickpocket doesn't always get indignant when you tell him to keep his hands to himself."
"Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep your own money."
"Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but organized against the productive but unorganized."
John 8 years, 3 months ago
"The politician is a type of creature known for its propensity to lie, exaggerate, embellish, and use all kinds of hysterical or bombastic attention-getting."Ronald Reagan: "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
. "In medicine, it has long been recognized that even a quack remedy that is harmless in itself can be fatal when it substitutes for an effective medication or treatment. The time is overdue for that same recognition to apply to politics." -- Dr. Thomas Sowell . "Politicians are the craftiest and most cunning of all con artists and salesmen. They can manipulate even the most cherished beliefs and intellectual arguments to convince you to give them immense coercive power over other people and eventually, even over you. They're so good at it that they can even convince many to become fanatic supporters, and themselves to believe their own bullshit." -- Rick Gaber
Economist 8 years, 3 months ago
The Bahamas has an Obese problem that no NHI in the world can afford......so like real idiots we decide to see how quickly we can bankrupt the country.......brilliant....must have something to do with the grade D average.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 3 months ago
Obesity is connected to our diet that is connected to our food supply that is connected to our government policies that is connected to our economic structure that is connected to our mercantile history that is connected to our British colonialism. .............. that is far beyond NHI ............... agreed
John 8 years, 3 months ago
And wat do your country have@ encompass the Bahamas also has too many imposters. I tell you that
TalRussell 8 years, 3 months ago
Comrades not unlike private insurers, "obesity" is connected to profiteering. Obesity is a product of a nation's growing wealth.
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