The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

IMAGINE a family, strapped for funds considering a loan to take care of certain obligations.

The man, who normally services his own car, decides to take his car to a mechanic to pay at least twice the cost that he would were he to do it himself. In the minds of many this would be considered financially irresponsible.

The former government pushed to start National Health Insurance prematurely as a political ploy. In my opinion, it is not well thought out and cannot achieve the objectives of transforming health care in this country as they stated it would.

As I understand it, in its first phase, the applicants for the programme are able to get the same services (a free visit at the government’s expense) at a private clinic that they were able to get in the public system. In other words, the government is now paying the private sector for a service they were already paying for in the public sector.

Knowing that the government is strapped for cash and knowing that NHI is less than a month old, one wonders why the present government did not suspend the continuation of the programme for re-evaluation. The population is not yet dependent on it. Limit the current list to those who have already applied, but pay out no more than that.

Why divert much needed funds from the government’s coffers into the private sector for services that are already provided in the public sector? Why not streamline and increase the efficiency of the services in the community clinics and reduce the amount of non-emergency cases that visit Accident and Emergency through patient education? Why not present a more viable alternative if there is one?

Additionally, it may be more palatable for working Bahamians to make a marginal monthly contribution ($3 to $5) to a “catastrophic fund” that is properly administered with clear guidelines for how to access the fund and the limits each applicants can receive, than considering the future implementation of new taxes on the general population. What about an additional tax on gambling, tobacco and tobacco products or alcohol allocated to this fund?

Thus far I am not impressed, but it is still very early in the game. Let’s see what happens.

JOHN BOWMAN

May 30, 2015