Premier Dr. the Hon. Natalio Wheatley says the National Health Insurance (NHI) needs much more than just a few adjustments as the insurance scheme continues to burden the government’s purse, with a debt surpassing more than $15 million.
Premier Wheatley at the time of making the statement was responding to a question posed during a debate at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, which was held for leaders of political parties in the upcoming general election.
Dr. Wheatley believes a comprehensive solution is needed to address the NHI issue, rather than a few tweaks.
Premier Wheatley who is the Chairman of the Virgin Islands Party said a major challenge is that most of the funding from the NHI goes into private healthcare providers when the system was designed to complement the services at the Dr. D Orlando Smith Hospital, which would have created a health ecosystem.
Chairman of the National Democratic Party and the current Minister for Health Hon. Marlon Penn said the creation of the NHI was the right thing to do.
However, he said one of the main issues within the present NHI system was not making it the primary healthcare insurance, but unlike Premier Wheatley, he believes the system needs a few tweaks to allow it to be functioning as it was intended to.
Sharing similar sentiments to Penn was Chairman of the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM) Ronnie Skeleton, who said there are reports that have recommendations to tweak aspects of the system.
He said that if elected, his PVIM government will assess these documents to determine the best way forward for NHI in the territory.