Marco City Member of Parliament (MP) Greg Moss on Wednesday suggested that the proposed National Health Insurance Bill is only a disguise for fiscal reform.
In a fiery contribution in the Lower Chamber, Mr. Moss charged that the bill has nothing to with Universal Health Care, and suggested that Bahamians not be fooled.
“What we are saying is the hospital we used to be able to go to, based on your taxes, and based on your contributions you’re now going to pay for it. That can’t be right. That cannot be right. And now we are saying, let’s do this with NHI. Let’s tax health care which we built as an independent country to be included in the budget, let’s tax it a second time by calling it NHI,” Mr. Moss charged.
The Marco City MP further pointed out that Universal Health Care already exists in The Bahamas, and has existed for a while.
However, he said it has taken a turn for the worse, as the public health care system has not only been hybridized, but it is now working against the poor.
“We hybridized, bastardized the system by saying we will bring private health care into the public health care facilities. This is what Physicians Alliance is about. We said that we will allow private doctors to practice private medicine using private facilities and private resources for their personal benefit,” he said.
“That has happened on both sides of this house, on the PLP side and the FNM side. People got rich doing that,” Mr. Moss added.
“And as a result we have this anomaly; private wards, in public hospitals. We seem to believe that’s normal. That’s not normal. That’s not normal at all; and what it has led to is the public money being used to create public facilities to enrich in major part private doctors at the expense of the public citizens, who are deprived of the beds and facilities and the rest of it in the public hospitals in which they’re paying for,” Mr. Moss continued.
Mr. Moss’ comments spurred Prime Minister Perry Christie to fire back in strong objection.
“He was entirely wrong as to the existence of public care and private care in this country; entirely wrong,” said Mr. Christie.
“No matter what kind of imputations you try to make in respect to what I said or how long I said it, the fact of the matter is that the system he was describing never existed in this country,” said the prime minister.
Mr. Moss’ statements carried some similarities to the sentiments of Fort Charlotte MP Dr. Andre Rollins, who during his contribution this week accused the government of rolling out something that already exists, charging that Bahamians are already receiving free health services.
Dr. Rollins further charged that the proposed piece of legislation is only an ease gimmick to have Bahamians believe that the government is delivering on their promises.
