Parliament’s Central Committee will be briefed on a proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) today, Tuesday. The people won’t be able to follow the proceedings though, because the meeting will be held behind closed doors.
It obviously involves an issue of great importance to many persons in St. Maarten, so one can’t help but wonder what the big secret is. After all, presumably similar presentations for and consultations with local stakeholders about this same topic are scheduled this entire week.
Unless there is some major confidentiality problem with what the elected representatives will hear, allowing the public free access to the information provided seems the right thing to do, also because there is justified concern regarding the NHI, particularly its cost. As stated earlier, Aruba’s AZV coped with huge deficits that government had to cover when first introduced.
Of course, Public Health Minister Emil Lee knows this and it no doubt came up in several discussions he had with his Aruban counterpart on the matter. Still, Curaçao stopped short of a general health insurance with its Basic Sickness Cost Insurance BZV for a reason.
To make a long story short, it would have been nice if not just medical institutions and practitioners plus certain interest groups but everyone were able to take note of what the experts from abroad and members of the workgroup have to say regarding these plans, which will affect practically the whole population. Now that would be real transparency.
