Camille promises health insurance plan by 2006

TRINIDAD and Tobago will have a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in place by 2006 and a turnaround is currently taking place in all sectors of the local economy, according to Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis during the Budget debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. Reiterating Government’s intention to modernise the health sector, the Minister recalled that the former UNC Government failed to properly implement a health sector reform loan, negotiated with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) by the first Manning administration in 1994 and, “As a consequence of that, the Health Sector Reform Programme (HSRP) had almost been stymied. “We have been able to negotiate an extension of the health sector reform loan and because of being able to re-negotiate this extension, we are now able to assure that the NHIS will be put in place within a two-year period. 

The intention was that the NHIS would have been put in place already, but because of the tardiness of those on the other side, that was not to be,” Robinson-Regis said. Health Minister John Rahael said preliminary NHIS discussions were held in April and Government has completed 60 percent of the HSRP to date. Robinson-Regis debunked St Augustine MP Winston Dookeran’s claims that Government was leading TT down the road to economic ruin, saying Dookeran based his statements on a July International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV Consultation Report. She added that Government was being guided by an updated October IMF Report which will be published next week. “The intention is clear that the turnaround (in the economy) is obvious. The IMF is certainly saying that the path being taken by this administration is the right path to lead us to the necessary turnaround. We on this side will opt to take the advice that is given in the October report of the IMF,” the Minister declared. Robinson-Regis also disclosed that Government had established a committee to develop a seamless system of education in TT.