The Nassau Guardian
Gibson dismisses Sands’ concerns on NHI date
Minister of Labour and National Insurance Shane Gibson yesterday dismissed concerns from Free National Movement (FNM) Deputy Chairman Dr. Duane Sands that the government will not meet its January 2016 deadline for National Health Insurance (NHI).
“It is really difficult for me to keep responding to an always rejected man who wants to be a politician,” Gibson told reporters yesterday.
“He is at his best when he is criticizing, and I’m not going to endorse him or authenticate what he says by responding to him. As soon as he is able to be elected in Parliament...then I will speak to him.”
Last Wednesday, Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis said the government intends to implement NHI in January 2016.
He said NHI should be a national priority and “we should all support it”.
“I would say to any Bahamian who has read the article in The Nassau Guardian, dated May 8, do not hold your breath,” said Sands, who appeared as a guest recently on the Star 106.5 FM radio talk show “Jeffrey” with Jeffrey Lloyd.
Sands pointed to the numerous deadlines the Christie administration previously set for universal healthcare as reasons why he doubts the plan will be executed.
“You heard National Health Insurance was coming in 2006,” Sands said.
“Then you heard the now minister of health (Dr. Perry Gomez) on the campaign trail say that within one year after the election NHI would be implemented in The Bahamas.
“Then that date was pushed back for another year. Now we hear it’s pushed back to another year-and-a-half.
“I put that to you against the background of the fiscal challenges in this country; against the background of the fact that most of the planning hasn’t been done.
“This will not happen, not with this government and its total incompetence in terms of planning and executing anything.”
The government has engaged Costa Rican accounting firm Sanigest Internacional to come up with the cost for NHI, according to Minister of Health Dr. Perry Gomez.
Gomez said the NHI report is due by mid-July.
Gibson has promised to release how much the government paid the firm.
When asked yesterday, he said, “We’re not operating in a vacuum.
“As soon as we have all the information and we are ready to release that information we will release it. It makes no sense to me personally to release information [in] bits and pieces at a time.
As soon as we are ready to release the appropriate information through the appropriate means, then we will do so.”
Under the first Christie administration, NHI was estimated to cost $235 million annually.
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