submit or suffer = PLP

This is complete extortion! If the NHI system is so wonderful, then why isn't everyone signing up in droves? There's a clue!

No way am I signing up for this absolute farce of "health coverage". I like my private insurance just fine, thank you! I pay a lot for it (and it's a choice I make by eating out less or taking less vacation, driving an older car, etc.), but I know what I'm getting, and I also am not stupid enough to think you get something for nothing, as NHI would like us to believe.

Of course you won't. NO insurance ever gives you back what you put in. Most of us will never recover more than 10% of what we put in. Like NHI, it will be a slush fund with only a few persons really benefitting and the well taking care of the sick.

It's to cover all the people that never pay which is cost to the hospital.

i am not to worried about any consequence - they can't arrest all the criminals here but they are going to start locking people up for not signing up? We're all gonna have to pay the bloody tax regardless = this is a good step towards communism which daily it appears the PLP is leaning more and more towards under the guise of socialists (sounds like nazi's and hitler really)

it is a socialist approach. If you are rich and get caught with a gun, you pay 15,000 BSD fine. If you are poor and get caught with a gun, they book you and let you go and if you are lucky you get your day in court. This is how this country is run. See they will go after the honest people and will let the crooks of the hook. Look at the BOB loans, look at the big accounts at BEC, look at the selective property tax enforcement

They let people 'good son' go is what....

Is NHI going to be like union dues??????? Even if you don't join the union, you still have to pay 90% of the dues as "agency shop"????????? ............ do we hear that in this statement??????

Keep pushing, sooner or later the people will push back. Haiti, here we come!

How can you penalize anyone for refusing to sign on to something that has not even be properly legislated, debated and passed in both houses and Gazetted?
Oh, I forgot that the law of the land don't apply to yinna.

In all healthcare systems that are nationalized enrollment is mandatory with the possibility of disincentive not to do otherwise. This is similar but not the same as NIB.

The thing is everyone can agree that the healthcare system has to change for the following reasons: inadequate medication supplies, long waits at ER, limited access to operating rooms, long waits to see specialists... What is immoral about this is that it's your money that is being used and you don't have equitable access to medical care that you paid for. So since there are only twenty ICU beds and all are filled and your mother has aneurysm that is bleeding and there is no bed available because all other patients are also critical and you cannot afford private care; you cannot afford a flight to Miami, what is left is she receives sub-standard care in a less than favorable ward where the nurses are not ICU trained and the outcome is not good most of the time. That is why NHI is needed. Access. Availability. Affordable. Timely.

Agree. concept of adverse selection. the people that can not afford insurance will sign up for NHI, and these are the people that did not invest in their health in the past, hence are not only the biggest risk, but also the biggest cost factor in the whole system. NHI needs healthy, wealthy people to balance this out. Now the problem is as you pointed out, that the mandatory systems work only in environment where also the healthy wealthy people get something out of the health care model (short or long term) and the money is properly accounted for, else it will be seen as another tax. The current situation is such, that I would think most people that are part of the groups carrying the burden of financing this government through VAT, NHI, Duty, etc. are against the system. The government better do everything to win these people over else this NHI will be a DOA: A second class medicare system, run by corrupt doctors and administrators, overseen by corrupt government officials, that has no incentive to provide decent services to the ones of our society that need it. In other words, we will be worse off after implementation altogether.

Ahhh, GrassRoot you pretty much nailed it. My one caveat is this: you are correct--NHI scheme presumes sufficient healthy, paying people to carry the load for those who are mostly ill who cannot afford to pay: socialized medicine. But, sometimes, Healthy people have babies with complications that require medical/surgical intervention that can cost as much as $750,000. (Believe me I know first hand). And then that same family can have a member that develops cancer and that along with your outstanding will send you to the poor house. And thus NHI can benefit you. Also, eventually, we will ALL need medical intervention as we get older and every year the cost of healthcare goes up and up and up. So with the meagre pension and gratuity money (because the private insurance WILL drop you after 65yrs or premiums will be on the scale of $1200- $1500 per month--assuming you ARE healthy at that age, which is unlikely) you are not able to afford the care you need at that time and so NHI is needed.

But you are soooo correct. Corrupt doctors and administrators and insurers left to manage $850 million a year is asking for trouble without PROPER and I mean HONEST oversight... and on that note, I just don't know if we could do that in this climate without serious uprooting reform in how we do things.

Yes, they needed to fix everything first.

Stupid idiots. No because that's communism, imposing on civil liberties.

Dey mean dey gon charge dey Mar ay? Talkin' fool is a very serious ting, hear Ms. Dillet???!!!

Of course in order for everyone to be covered, everyone has to afford it. This fundamental needed to be planned out before, or it means NHI is not ready. It's either fake or an obligation we don't know about. Figured they could slip this part in last minute to force it.

1 If you don't get it, be billed at an increased cost.
2 Deduct from VAT return (for businesses who choose private employee coverage).
3 Benefits to enrolling within a timeframe and at an early age.
4 Force insurance companies to include affordable government packages.
5 No deductible for those who enroll this first year, if needed before a minimal amount was contributed, just continue paying like an early Asue win.
6. A fee for switching to private.
7. Web shop gaming privilege revoked for missed payments , any illegal winnings will be confiscated from the supplier before being paid out.

Freedom Secured

Now what the hell is going to cover the cost of more foreign practitioners required?

this wouldnt even be a big conversation if people wasnt relying on insurance an doctors for their health. Health is a FOOD CONCERN! not a insurance or doctor concern. I understand a doctor has his/her role to play when it come to health, but we as individuals have a greater role than the doctor for ourselves. If your food is your medicine, the need for a doctor is very limited therefore giving you less chances of having a health related issue. We need to stop DEPENDING on doctors to take care of us, lets acknowledge the power god give us and learn about our bodies, learn about the foods designed for our bodies so that we can help each other. Our bodies is a balance of Alkaline and Acid, Alkaline being the healthy side, so eat Alkaline food to keep your potential hydrogen 7.0 an above, drink natural spring water or alkaline water, stay away from meat, starch, fat, unnatural sugar, dairy products. Smoke weed or vaporize it, juice it, cook with it. Learn about our african foods cuz das where we from. When these things happen, we will create a whole different conversation which in my opinion is a wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better one than this.

Where is Mrs. Pindling's fine for not paying her taxes for 14 years, & Leslie Miller's fines for not paying BEC $250,000.00 ??? They never turned his power off much less fined him. Politicians need to obey the same law that the citizens have to, even more so because they should lead by EXAMPLE... What a poor job they are doing.