NHI to cost Govt more, not less – Natalio D. Wheatley
He was speaking on the EGM Show heard on ZROD 103.7 FM on Thursday September 17, 2015 during which he continued to agitate for Government to take the NHI back to the drawing board and address some of the burning issues of concern to residents and members of the insurance industry which will be forced to deplete staff as a result of the scheme which fully comes into operation on January 1, 2016.
According to Wheatley, who has been appearing on many talk shows of late, one of the arguments that proponents of the NHI put forward is that Government is spending too much on persons who are not covered in terms of insurance and that to run the hospital and clinics will take about $35 million a year.
“But the interesting thing is that Government is saying that they are spending too much on healthcare which is $27 million. [However] under the NHI Government spending will increase from $27 million to nearly $40 million and I am using the figures that the Minister for Health and Social Development [Hon Ronnie W. Skelton] put out,” he said.
“And the Government is footing 53 percent of the bill, more than half. So instead of spending less, Government with the NHI will be spending more and it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever,” said Wheatley,who has started a petition against the NHI which has garnered over 600 signatures so far.
Not properly discussed
Host of the show Edmund G. Maduro is concerned that the Government before deciding on the NHI did not properly discuss same with the members of the insurance industry.
“Government hasn’t even taken any information from the insurance industry and that is sad because if they were thinking financially they would have sat with the insurance companies to decide how they could get that group of people who can’t pay to be insured at a cheaper rate,” said Maduro.
The Insurance Association of the BVI (IABVI) has criticised government for ignoring concerns about NHI and has also challenged it to release its own figures showing how NHI would be viable.
The IABVI has been criticised for allegedly expressing their “grouses” at the eleventh hour, however, it said this is because individual insurance firms had been putting their concerns to those responsible for NHI privately.
It said that all through the “consultation” process the private insurance companies offered help, support, and advice but none of the offers of help were taken up and none of the advice offered by the insurance firms was heeded.
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