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NHI smacks of greed! – Winston E. Nibbs

- said monies going to the healthcare professionals, not the hospital
Winston E. Nibbs aka La Fontey. Photo: Provided
Talk show host Doug Wheatley. Photo: VINO/File
Talk show host Doug Wheatley. Photo: VINO/File
Registration for the controversial NHI began on September 1, 2015. However the scheme comes on stream from January 1, 2016. Photo: VINO/File
Registration for the controversial NHI began on September 1, 2015. However the scheme comes on stream from January 1, 2016. Photo: VINO/File
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI – Radio personality Winston E. Nibbs aka La Fontey said there seems to be a serious case of “greed” with regard to the monies projected to be garnered by the National Health Insurance (NHI) and how those monies are intended to be spent.

He was speaking as a guest, along with Natalio D. Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru, on the Speak Out BVI radio talk show aired on ZBVI 780 AM on Tuesday September 15, 2015.

“We are too intelligent to just throw a thing on the table and say let’s go with it,” Mr Nibbs said.

“Let’s not forget we have a section of our government system called Welfare. We were intelligent [enough] to put these things in place and we have found good favour in it. So let’s not make it look tonight like [myself] and Sowande trying to suggest anything other than our wellbeing.

“Those of us who either by choice or by privilege who do not necessarily need to suck off of the public nipple…we do not want it to become a dry well. We need to be more intelligent in our approach,” he added.

According to Nibbs, he has a problem with the fact that the scheme is being touted as mandatory for all persons who will be caught in its net. “I don’t want it to be mandatory as it is right now. I don’t want to see it or hear about it. But maybe it should be mandatory that when you go to the hospital they cannot deny you assistance,” he said. “I think that is where we need to shift the mandatory [concept],” he argued.

Nibbs said Government is claiming that the hospital has to be paid for hence the need for NHI. He is of the view that the money from NHI will go towards paying the doctors and nurses and dispensary staff when people turn up there to access health care.

“The professionals are the ones who are going to get paid. And that is what the reason is for ‘taxing us’. Don’t lose your sight people…because this tax does not seem to have anything to do with our infrastructure at the Peebles Hospital. It has to do with some serious level of greed,” Mr Nibbs said.

Efforts to get a response from Chairman of the BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA) Bishop John I. Cline proved futile.

Registration for the controversial NHI began on September 1, 2015. However, the scheme comes on stream from January 1, 2016.

18 Responses to “NHI smacks of greed! – Winston E. Nibbs”

  • ccc (17/09/2015, 15:48) Like (26) Dislike (8) Reply
    Brother you speaking good
    • the rock (17/09/2015, 16:23) Like (15) Dislike (32) Reply
      Brother speaking nonsense dude, the hospital has never and the rock means never turned down anyone, fonte why not ask the local insurances to make it affordable to have both insurances let them come down off they high horses, for years they rob us and treat us like sh.t, now nhi here them crying!
    • Not sure I understand the Greed Point (17/09/2015, 19:49) Like (9) Dislike (0) Reply
      I am an NDP. My blood is indeed red! I am for NHI. I am not for it in its current form. But I don't understand how you can separate the hospital from it's staff by saying that the money is not for the hospital but for the professionals. The hospital building by itself is no good. It is a delivery unit designed to deliver a service, by medical professionals. To try to separate as to how monies are distributed between its physical infrastructure and its human insfrastructure is illogic. The professionals there are paid next to nothing anyway. I don't even know how they retain some of them. If the HSA could afford to pay market price for medical service, we will stop attracting the level of professionals we do (in some instances, not all) and the service level will improve. It is part of the whole point of NHI-to be able to deliver a better service. We can't hold on to our money in our hands and still expect to get value for it. Life nor the economic system works like that and neither will the HSA or NHI. The whole NHI initiative does need some tweaking but let us not throw out the baby with the bath water by picking at non-issues and by discounting the ones that actually need to be addressed by NHI.
      • @#@% (18/09/2015, 11:38) Like (1) Dislike (0) Reply
        You have to seperate the infrasructure from the services provide because if you randomly collect the funds and use it directly toward infrastructure this is what you call fraud. I agree tat NHI is needed but it should not be implemented in a way that make coverage for those with private insurance ineffective or unworkable. NHI does nothing for the private insurance holder as NHI is a shell of the far superior coverage provided by private carriers.
        The best way forward is to focus on providing insurance for the 38 % of the population without insurance. Let those with private insurance equivalent or better han that provided by NHI be exempt from all participation from NHI but to be exempt be assessed a 1% or 2% monthly penalty to assist in funding those without insurance. The contributions should not exceed this amount as mos of the uninsured will be minimum wae earners.
  • YeSa (17/09/2015, 15:52) Like (22) Dislike (31) Reply
    Come Nibbs, suck it up, you and the Wheatley's are just trying to bad mouth the NHI, i see it as a right way moving forward, whether it was NDP in power or VIP, it was coming evening if VIP was in power. So dont make it look like NDP trying to steal from the people..................What you guys need to do, is stop spreading false rumors on the Government, thats why you are where you are, in a one mind thinking.
  • vip (17/09/2015, 16:14) Like (11) Dislike (2) Reply
    What else is new with the NDP
  • Bull Dawg (17/09/2015, 16:39) Like (4) Dislike (8) Reply
    As long as the hospital and the private health care services don't start raising there fees for service anytime now, i see it as a good plan. Because this is hard times now and if inflation rise again Tortola will be in big trouble.
    It is good to help those who really need it, because everyone on the face of the earth is not so fortunate after all.
  • NHI rates high (17/09/2015, 16:44) Like (10) Dislike (9) Reply
    The Hospital Board needs to go. Then they have this NHI look like a trick. They have it Cap at 6,000.00 to benefit them and their high paying friends. Take the Cap away and make it fair "He who makes more pays more" If they take the Cap away, or even Cap it at 10,000 that would triple the predicted amt going into the pool. As a result the rates can drop to 4% employee pays 2%nd employer pays 2%. every one pays less. Its too expensive as it is. I am for NHI.
  • lord-o (17/09/2015, 16:47) Like (22) Dislike (6) Reply
    NHI is a more man Tax. The poor pay and the rich benefit.
  • DISAGREE (17/09/2015, 16:56) Like (13) Dislike (6) Reply

    I will agree that the rates are high. I don`t understand the reason for the cap, I don`t like it. NHI can be very good, once they look at the cap and the fees again. These Wicked and bias and spiteful private insurance companies. Who`s more greedy than them? God don`t sleep. NHI is a blessing for us.

    • @DISAGREE (20/09/2015, 20:25) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
      ...How are they going to pay for the children and elderly if the rates are not high?
  • W*F (17/09/2015, 20:43) Like (3) Dislike (1) Reply

    So let me get this straight. We should just build a big cistern by the Hospital and drop the NHI moneys in it? That will make him happy? The Hospital is not getting the money but rather the professionals? WTF??????? Part of the Hospital's expenses are human resources. Without doctors, nurses, orderlies, administrative staff, EMTs, technical persons etc. How the F will the hospital function without these professionals? Should they work for free? I think some people will do anything just to get on a mic on live radio or to get on TV. This makes absolutely no sense and just gave me a headache thinking about it. So Ronnie, get Jamesy and them boys to build a holding tank for NHI funds let's drop it in there and make this chap happy. You really can't make this sh*t up. SMH.

    • Jed I (20/09/2015, 19:24) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
      All of SELF & none of THEE! Bottom line. Management could careless about staff and salaries as long as the PROFESSIONALS such as DOCTORS & NURSES, CEO, COMS, DIRECTORS & BOARD MEMBERS get if not piece all of the cake, they care NOTHING about the rest of the staff!
  • vex (17/09/2015, 20:50) Like (17) Dislike (1) Reply
    Ndp must go bottom line
  • wize up (17/09/2015, 23:22) Like (0) Dislike (4) Reply
    the only thing I dislike about NHI is that is mandatory because I already have medical insurance but NHI will cost me less each month: with my current insurance I must make sure that the medical facility outside of BVI will accept it before I leave the territory: my concern is why all the uproar now, where were the critics and skeptics before the implementation process: I know when the current social security system had its critics, when the HLSCC had its critics, when the Noel Lloyd park had its critics and the list goes on: there are those in our community that does nothing but find fault with ever !ucking thing but you can never ever get any new ideas from them to improve the standard of living for our people but you come up an idea you will hear the noise!! I am mindful of freedom of speech in our country so you just have to live with it.....
  • Keeping it real (17/09/2015, 23:46) Like (9) Dislike (6) Reply
    NHI is needed because too many of you both locasl and especially expats have for a long time exploited the health system by not paying for services rendered. It is time to stop bleeding the Govrnment and our country.
    • @Keeping it real (20/09/2015, 20:34) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
      I agree, many people can't pay their hospital bill so guess who has to pay it in the end 'tax payers'. I just hope that government is ready to enforce payment. 'I guess that is why it is being managed under SSB'.


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