Dear Editor,
There is no way on earth that National Health Insurance (NHI) will be rolled out in 2016, but the government will not admit it just yet. In fact, NHI cannot be properly and realistically implemented for another 12 to 18 months, but that's none of my business.
Select members of the NHI Secretariat were treated to an exotic vacation, or rather fact-finding mission, to South Africa. I am not mad at them for taking advantage of the generosity of the government at the expense of taxpayers, but find it rather amusing that we had to go all the way to Africa to hear what we already know based on the advice of KPMG and Sanigest.
The truth is that South Africa has been struggling with rolling out NHI for years amidst challenging economic times and a skeptical population. It is also struggling with corruption in high places just like The Bahamas, and is hell-bent on implementing an unaffordable health plan just like us. To its credit, at least it had the courtesy of issuing a green paper in 2011 and a white paper in December 2015 for public consultation, unlike The Bahamas that is doing everything backward and in secrecy.
While Dr. Brennen and Co. were enjoying the African safari, I hope they actually read the South African NHI white paper and studied their approach. If they did, I am optimistic that they noticed that that country intends to phase in NHI over 14 years with the first five years dedicated to actually strengthening the public health system. They also had a deep revelation in the motherland that we ought to incentivize people to purchase healthy grocery items, as if they did not know how expensive our government has made it for us to buy fruits, vegetables and organic foods with the duties levied on them.
Perhaps Dr. Bowe and his friends will learn from the honesty of the South Africans, who have clearly stated that medical schemes and private health insurance will shrink with the implementation of NHI. If they did, they just need to tell the people the bitter truth about what their ultimate plan is. More importantly, it is my hope that they note the significant challenges South Africa is facing to roll out this massive scheme and that it is nowhere near ready to commence its NHI program. Remarkably, they got validation that we are on the right track from a country which is trying to find the right direction to go in.
As an insider, I am becoming more and more frustrated with this process. KPMG is the latest consultant being paid megabucks to tell us what we already know while Bahamians are unemployed and suffering. The stakeholders have been bamboozled to think their opinions will now matter. What a joke! We know better and they have fallen for the bait of a well-oiled machinery involving KPMG and a Canadian PR firm - FleishmanHillard. By the way, where are Sanigest and PWC? Jokes can't done in this NHI mess.
Has anyone been paying attention to NIB and its drama of late? Wasn't NIB supposed to help us with NHI? Any thoughts on the new IT system at NIB? If we can't get NIB right after 40 years, how do we handle the Bahamian people's healthcare?
Do you know the doctors and businessmen who really stand to benefit from My NHI? Who is getting the contracts to actually strengthen the healthcare system? How much have we paid NHI consultants since 2013? How much are we going to pay KPMG to make this happen before the next election? How many more trips are we going to pay for to justify our faulty approach? Just asking.
Until next time, election's coming and this is the PLP's final hope to try to win the election 'cause things bad. We need to put something together fast, and if it means shoving a jacked-up plan down the Bahamian people's throats, so be it. We hope Dr. Britnell can pull this off for us and keep those doctors in check until 2017. This is #MyNHI, what's yours?
- NHI insider
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