Among the Christie
administration’s extraordinary failures and wasteland of broken promises,
was the abandonment of the Bahamian people on health care. On
April 4th, 2002, Opposition Leader Perry Gladstone Christie declared:
“I want to
create a system of National Health Insurance so that poor people will
stop dying simply because they are too poor to pay for medical attention.
This is the greatest national disgrace of all! How can we call
ourselves a caring, compassionate society when the difference between
whether a young child lives or dies depends on whether he or she is
covered by private health insurance or not; or whether the parents have
money to pay for the operation or not. That such a situation still
exists in our country is a stain on the social conscience that must
be removed. And it will be removed under my administration because
the PLP will treat the introduction of National Health Insurance as
a matter of the most urgent priority.”
The Opposition
promised in its 2002 manifesto to: “Put in place a system of national
health insurance so that every Bahamian will have insurance coverage
for major surgery and other medical services” and “improve maternal-child
health services to reduce the unacceptably high infant mortality rate.”
The PLP failed
to deliver a single component of national health insurance and infant
mortality rates rose significantly while they were in office after having
significantly declined during previous FNM administrations.
The Opposition
also promised to: “Transform the Hospital [PMH], the flagship for
the entire health care system, into the first class care facility that
it has the potential to become”, “modernize the Sandilands Rehabilitation
Centre” and develop a regional hospital in Exuma. All of these
promises were broken
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The FNM has introduced
a national prescription drug benefit and will extend it to all workers
and their families.
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The FNM will introduce
catastrophic health insurance.
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The FNM is transforming
health care facilities across the country including the Princess Margaret
Hospital, The Rand Memorial in Grand Bahama and the Sandilands Rehabilitation
Centre.
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The FNM has begun
plans for hospitals in Abaco and Exuma, and will build hospitals in
Eleuthera and Long Island.
