Dear Editor,
I knew it was coming, I even warned that the people would only rise up by their next pay slip, but somewhere, somehow, I had hoped it would not be true. Much to my dismay, the proof is in the pudding.
The numbers do not lie. My personal health insurance cost has gone up 2.7x compared to last month!
This law is draconian, and unfair, and completely unhinged with reality! Not just for myself, but also for my employer. If we total the costs, we are talking about 978.85 x 12 = NAf. 11,746.20 or $6,525.67 per year to insure a young, generally healthy professional. That is unacceptable from nearly all perceivable angles, truly.
In August: 640 SZV/ZV Employer NAf. 649.96, plus 641 SZV/ZV Employee NAf. 328.89 = 642 SZV/ZV Total NAf. 978.85.
In July: 300 Sickness Insurance NAf. 118.68.
An increase of 2.7x.
How much does this government want to take from the same people time and time again? Always resorting to the measure that will hit us in the pocket at the flick of a pen, but slow to do anything with regard to accountability, with increasing efficiency, with reducing costs, with tackling the problems at the root of the source,
We, the tax-paying citizens of this nation, have sacrificed with the COHO measures, taken hits with increased cost of basically everything, and are constantly bombarded one scandal after the other, so much so, that we cannot even begin to focus on one or get the answers we deserve. Enough is enough. This is the price we pay for electing short-term thinkers who only have their and their people’s own interests at heart.
No vision, no long-term plan, no viability assessments, and rampant inefficiencies have brought us to where we are now. If it were up to me, elections should be held sooner than later. It is time for change!
But whether it is sooner or later, I implore every hard-working, tax-paying St. Maartener, please, please, please, do not forget who put us in this mess, and what they did to “fix it”!
David Salomon
