By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

There is “no way on God’s green earth” that the Government can hope to run an efficient National Health Insurance (NHI) system given its “disastrous” track record, an outspoken businessman has warned.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, Superwash’s president, told Tribune Business that the Christie administration would be expanding social benefits without increasing the number of contributors if it elected to press ahead with NHI before the economy fully rebounded.

This, he explained, was because NHI - and the taxation required to fund it - would do little to encourage the private sector to expand and create jobs for the 31,000 Bahamians who are currently unemployed.

“There’s no way the business community can absorb a 5-10 per cent additional tax, as is proposed at this time,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business. “I don’t know what they’re [the Government] thinking.

“There’s 31,000 people unemployed, and you don’t reduce unemployment by increasing taxes. While the [healthcare] situation is not ideal, and I agree we should try and provide universal healthcare to our people, coming so soon after the implementation of Value-Added Tax, it’s just a stupid thing to do.”

The Government’s consultants, Sangiest Internacional, have proposed a payroll tax as the main mechanism to finance NHI. They recommended rates between 1-5 per cent, depending on whether the Christie administration opts for the ‘smaller’ $362 million package or the ‘comprehensive’ $633 million NHI version.

Mr D’Aguilar, though, joined fellow businessman Franklyn Wilson in arguing that the Government should focus on making sure VAT was ‘bedded down’ before contemplating the further taxation NHI will bring.

The Christie administration is aiming to implement NHI in January 2016, exactly one year after VAT’s introduction, but Mr D’Aguilar urged it to concentrate on job creation as opposed to expanding social security benefits.

“More than anything, people want a job,” the Superwash president told Tribune Business. “The Government is not sending the right message to the business community to grow their businesses.”

Acknowledging that Baha Mar’s 5,000 permanent posts would likely cut the jobless numbers to around 26,000, Mr D’Aguilar said May/June’s school leavers would potentially take the unemployed figures straight back to the 30,0000 range.

“It’s ludicrous to keep thinking you can give people the benefits without the jobs,” he said. “It doesn’t bode well for your country when more people are taking benefits and not contributing. The Government should focus on creating jobs.”

Mr D’Aguilar’s comments touch on the NHI scheme’s sustainability. With 31,000 unemployed persons in the Bahamas at November 2014, and unable to contribute to NHI themselves, the existing 201,000-strong workforce will have the burden of both financing them and others - such as the elderly and indigent.

With demographics showing the Bahamas’ population is aging, as persons live longer, the NHI scheme will likely require increased contributions from employed persons to cover those will not me making any payments.

And, while emphasising that he did “not want to sound soulless and heartless”, Mr D’Aguilar said a $500-$600 million increase in taxation would “hurt more than it helps” given that NHI would assist “such a small segment of our population”.

“We always talk about raising taxes and spending money, but no one talks about creating jobs,” he told Tribune Business. “Let’s help those 31,000 people. What are we doing to address that issue? Talk of VAT and NHI is not going to encourage people to go out there and create jobs. I want a job before I get healthcare.”

Arguing that the Bahamas needed to put NHI behind it “before we contemplate any other expenditures”, Mr D’Aguilar said politicians tended to “spend money like crazy” unless measures were implemented to force them to be prudent and accountable/transparent.

He warned that without such checks and balances, the Government would “spend that VAT money so fast” that the fiscal deficit and $6 billion national debt will barely be dented. “The Budget is a farce,” Mr D’Aguilar said.

He then warned that the Government’s track record, in both healthcare and business generally, suggested NHI would be anything but efficient and well-run.

“There is no way on God’s green earth that the Bahamas Government should run a National Health Insurance system,” Mr D’Aguilar thundered to Tribune Business. “Name me one thing they run well. How many times do we need to make the same mistake?

“If the Bahamas government runs it, we will get a slack, sloppy, inefficient and corrupt system…. Why do we think running an NHI system is going to be even better than anything they’ve run in the past?

“If the Prime Minister insists on running NHI, for God’s sake, don’t let the civil servants run this system. It should be run privately, independently and with some checks and balances.”

The controversial audit, which found there was a $10 million difference in pharmaceutical inventory between the physical count and what was reflected in the Princess Margaret Hospital’s (PMH) computer system, is still fresh in the minds of many.

And the protracted process to open the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Critical Care Block also fails to send the right signals for those hoping the proposed NHI scheme will be well-run and managed.

“How much did that cost the taxpayer to build that building, and then failing to put in the equipment to operate it,” Mr D’Aguilar asked. “Why do they think they are going to run this [NHI] any better?

“They can’t talk about implementing NHI until they figure out how to run it, and it can’t be the Bahamas government. It will be a massive drain on the Treasury, and I can’t see them delivering better service than they are now - for PMH or anything else.

“Yes, it [NHI] appeals to the people. Yes, we’re going to give you free healthcare. But at what cost and level of service?”