‘There is the possibility of changes to NHI’ – Premier Smith
Speaking to this news site last evening December 15, 2015, Premier Smith said that even at the last minute registration is going well and people are still signing up.
It has been this news site’s observation that lines to pick up forms and sign up were long over the past few days.
“Even at this last moment registration is going well. Most of the providers are all signed up as well. So I think we are off to a good start,” Premier Smith said.
“There is always the possibility for change especially when something is new. There’s always the possibility that it may need some adjustments but we will have to wait and see,” he said.
No response to petition
The NHI Concerned Citizens and Residents Group are still seeking changes to the NHI as outlined in the petition that they submitted to the Premier on October 13, 2015.
The NHI Concerned Citizens and Residents Group, according to our source, is now seeking to send the NHI petition to the Queen since it has not received any official response from Premier Dr The Hon D. Orlando Smith on the petition delivered to him two months ago.
Good response from Latin community
According to a press release from Government Information Service (GIS), the Latin community is responding well to the registration exercise.
The release, put out yesterday, said that the Latin community in the Virgin Islands has been educated on the benefits of the NHI following a meeting held with representatives of the Social Security Board.
Deputy Director of the Social Security Board with responsibility for the NHI, Mr Roy N. Barry stated that he was happy with the positive attitude and response of the Latin community.
Mr Barry said, “The presentation was ably delivered to them in Spanish and they left satisfied and willing to spread the word to those who could not attend the meeting. We printed our brochures in Spanish as well to assist in the education process to bridge the language barrier.”
President of the Dominican Association, Mr Santiago Robles expressed his gratitude to the management and staff of NHI, for ensuring that the Latin community was informed, according to the release.
He added, “On behalf of the Dominican Association and the wider Latin community, I would like to say thank you, for bringing the Information to us in our language and further having a presentation to ensure that we understand and are comfortable with the Information”.
21 Responses to “‘There is the possibility of changes to NHI’ – Premier Smith”
Of course their will be changes smh so here is how we get £$%^& with no vaseline. 1st we get everybody signed up, nice affordable rate. 2, once we all signed up we see the tax and it's not bad we're cool. Last but not least, by 2017 or so we will raise the rate to about 5 or 6 percent, drop some of the coverage for some services and you can cry til hell freeze over. It aint a damn thing you can do about it!