The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie has a habit of communicating ideas and plans before performing assessments and understanding important details, Free National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard said yesterday.

His comment comes as the Christie administration faces criticism for not divulging key information about its National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, the first phase of which is expected to be introduced in January.

Referring to value added tax (VAT) and the gaming referendum, Mr Pintard said history suggests the government’s NHI scheme and timeline will not go according to plans.

“Mr Christie has a pattern of communicating ideas without having first internal discussions with people required to drive the processes needed to bring the ideas to fruition,” he said. “He announces before internal discussion and planning takes place. Then he seeks to force the system to meet unrealistic deadlines. He has done this on numerous occasions. Whether gaming, gender equality referendum, VAT, you name the initiative by this government, almost every programme is announced before serious internal discussions to come up with realistic deadlines takes place.

“He wishes to put forth grand ideas because of the immediate positive feedback he anticipates he is going to get. Now more than ever, the deadline has to do with pressures. Right now they are experiencing tremendous pressure to produce results for a public that has been thoroughly dissatisfied with the results thus far.”

As for substantive criticism of the government’s NHI plans, Mr Pintard spoke of deadlines that have already been missed and a lack of specifics over the first two phases of NHI, including what they will include and how they will be paid.

“The deadlines given by the government are unrealistic given the fact that they have missed important self-imposed deadlines recommended to them by their healthcare consultants,” he said. “For example, they are expected to put in place a fully integrated IT system that would manage this scheme; that has not happened. It’s not clear if the IT system has been sourced. The personnel has not been fully trained. The government by this time should’ve commenced the upgrade of several areas in the hospital and broader health care system. Thirdly, government should’ve completed its consultation with other service providers in order to agree upon the prices, the fees they would be expecting and the timeline for commencement. Furthermore, the government has not clearly identified what will take place in phase one and what will be the costing of this.”

The government has allocated money in the budget for this fiscal year to allow for the roll out of the first two phases of NHI.

However, Mr Pintard argued that it’s not possible to know the full cost without properly consulting service providers, many of whom say they are in the dark over the government’s scheme.

“If you have not had a discussion with health care providers, you aren’t in a position to say what will be adequate,” he said.

Mr Pintard also criticised the government’s messaging on NHI, saying that by focusing on introducing primary care coverage in April, the administration is not being upfront with Bahamians about the limited impact this will have on helping people address the exorbitant prices associated with some healthcare services.