I do hope the National Health Insurance scheme survives, even if only for us seniors. But with, apparently, more people registered and accepted than we have residents — and the difficulty government already has with collection of taxes — I seriously wonder.
People are already noticing that the private health providers are jumping on the bandwagon and overcharging the system for their services. I don’t know who the geniuses are in the system who negotiated agreed rates with them, but it doesn’t make sense to me.
For example, last year you could go to a doctor and get a health certificate for your driving licence, a procedure that takes all of ten minutes, for $60. This year the doctor will only charge you $20, but he will bill the NHI $100! So either we have 100 percent inflation in 12 months, which I doubt, or the doctors, with their agreement, are set to make a killing out of the NHI. Oh, I forgot — three of our legislators are doctors!
I also know of a case where a doctor charged $900 for a minutes-long consultation to remove a piece of snorkeler’s earwax with a pair of tweezers.
I am concerned that if the scheme is found not to be paying for itself, government will raise contributions and the health providers will in turn take advantage and raise their fees. Therein lies disaster.
Collecting taxes
On the subject of collecting taxes, we are told government is owed some $40 million. I am not sure if that includes the $20 million owed the BVI Health Services Authority, but either way it is a huge amount. I suspect most of it is land and health taxes.
For a member of the House of Assembly to say essentially that “it isn’t that people don’t want to pay; it’s just that they forget” is irresponsible of her in the extreme. At the same time, government and its agencies don’t pay their own bills either, so the BVI Electricity Corporation, the BVIHSA, and the Water and Sewage Department have cash flow problems — just like government. If you don’t get it in, you can’t pay it out.
I suppose when we were a poor territory we were bankrolled by the United Kingdom government every year and didn’t care too much. Historically, we didn’t pay much tax, and still don’t want to, so we are not bothered by the row over the Panama Papers — we don’t pay our taxes, so why shouldn’t we help others not to pay theirs? But now that we are rich — and we are rich — and have to pay our own way, government has to enact and enforce laws to collect what’s due.
Enforcement
They could start by sending out bills when taxes are due, followed by reminders, and then prosecuting for non-payment. The BVIEC regularly announces that if you did not receive your bill you should go in and pay. Water and Sewage says it often doesn’t issue bills (though it does erratically) and to go in and pay.
Government doesn’t issue any bills for land taxes. When I bought my property, I discovered that the land tax had not been paid for 10 years! There had never been any attempt to inform or collect the long overdue amount. This should be collected regardless of family, friends or voters.
They also need to increase taxes to realistic rates for today. Legislators said in the budget debate that they would increase some taxes, but not so as to hurt our people, which is ridiculous!
To date, however, they have not given any clue as to what taxes will be levied or when they will rise.
{fcomment}