EDITOR, The Tribune.

Last week, we were treated to an astonishing piece of political theatre by the DNA when the Deputy Chairman of that vanity party made his contribution to the debate over National Health Insurance. The trouble is deciding what kind of theatre it was. But one thing is clear: if the DNA was dealing with this nation’s affairs it would clearly be a tragedy.

I am fully in support of a universal health care system for The Bahamas, and I believe that the vast majority of Bahamians are. Let me say also that I am not a great supporter of the private health insurance industry.

However, it seems clear that most people – including many PLPs – have concluded that the PLP Government is typically bungling the process of devising a National Health Insurance scheme. There are a host of unanswered questions such as: How much will it cost? How will it be funded? Exactly what will be “rolled out” in January 2016?

Mr Mortimer himself expressed a lack of knowledge of what the government intends, including what will constitute “a defined benefits package”.

Bear in mind, too, that no less a person than the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Glen Beneby, delivered a shock treatment to the nation last week when he announced that $100m (that’s about 25 per cent) of the nation’s health budget is currently being “wasted”!

In the face of all this, Mr Mortimer says delaying the implementation of NHI is not an option. Then he outlines the reason for this brilliant conclusion:

“We believe that the system will work because we are Bahamians. We know what it’s like to step up to the plate and make things work. That’s been our history.”

That’s it? It will work because we are Bahamians? Does he not know that things will only work if we use our heads and hands as well as our hearts? Does he not know that if we do foolishness being Bahamian will not save us from disaster?

That is the real lesson of our history. We have done a lot of foolishness as Bahamians and we are paying the price today. We (the PLP Government) turned our country over to Colombian drug dealers some four decades ago and we may never recover from the devastation that brought down on our society.

In the last election, we voted for an incompetent leader and a party riddled with greed and a sense of entitlement and we are suffering for that today. Mr Mortimer would do well to consider what part he and his “party” played in that dismal piece of Bahamian history.

CORRECTOR

Nassau,

December 6, 2015.