The first article that I published in The Anguillian after the new AUM Government ascended to office was entitled: “Please Say It Isn’t So!” It had to do with some of my concerns with the newly established Social Security Board. My comments had three objectives:
• To encourage the Social Security Board or the Government or both to make an emphatic statement that they would not transfer Social Security deposits from the indigenous banks.
• To draw to the attention of the wider community the strategic importance of the fund to the local economy through the indigenous banking sector.
• To ensure that in future such issues involving the investment of Social Security funds remain an important topic of public discussion.
I believe that my efforts were successful because the action never took place. Today, more than four years later, I again find myself in a situation where I need to once more sensitize the community to a rumor that is circulating, regarding the Social Security Board, that should cause us all a great deal of concern. I ventilated this issue, as soon as I received it, at a public meeting in Sandy Hill on Saturday. However, since the print media is my preferred method of communication, I hasten to articulate my concerns here as well. Hopefully, I will be equally as successful in derailing this plan as I was over four years ago — if indeed it is being contemplated.
It is a fair question to ask me: Why are you responding to a mere rumour? The truth is that I am being very generous in classifying it as a rumour based on my sources. However, I am calling it a rumour mainly because there has been no official announcement or confirmation of this plan. And because I am hoping that by forewarning the public it can be quashed at an early stage without anyone losing face.
The rumour is:
• The Social Security Board and the Government of Anguilla are planning to introduce a National Health Insurance Fund by September of this year.
• The Fund will be financed by an EC$2 million grant from the Social Security Fund.
• At this stage, the Fund will only cover persons under the age of three and persons over sixty-five years old.
I want to make it clear that I have absolutely no objection to the Government of Anguilla implementing a National Health Insurance Fund. In fact, the planning for such a Fund was far advanced under our AUF Administration. Our effort, however, was based on a number of principles:
1. The fund must provide universal access to health care for all Anguillians not just a select group.
2. The fund had to be sustainable with a robust financing plan.
3. All gainfully employed persons must contribute to the plan.
4. It was accepted that the plan should not be implemented until it was determined that its chance for success was 100 percent guaranteed.
This proposed plan now, based on my information, will cover me at sixty-six as well as my granddaughter at eight months old, even though neither one of us would have contributed anything to the Fund. What therefore is the magic to our ages? What is the Fund’s plan for persons between the ages of four and sixty-four? Is the EC$2 million a one-time commitment from Social Security or will it be replenished annually? Is EC$2 million sufficient to manage the health care needs of my granddaughter and me along with the others in our highly-favoured group?
There are number of points and observations that I need to bring to your attention in this latest proposal as follows:
a. The monies in the Social Security Fund are for the benefit of contributors and their families. It is not a health funding mechanism. Those contributions were made on the basis of clear instructions in the Social Security Act as to how they must be used.
b. There seems to be a mad rush to implement this scheme in the last six months of the AUM Government’s term of office. Is this an election campaign gimmick?
c. There have been no public consultations on what will happen once the EC$2million grant is exhausted. Will it be the Interim Stabilization Levy or an additional levy measure that will replenish the fund?
d. The Government’s subvention to the Health Authority on an annual basis is over 20 million dollars. A mere 2 million dollars from Social Security only represents ten percent of that amount. That 2 million dollars could be depleted with just four cancer cases.
e. Despite the fact that September is just around the corner we have not heard anything about how the rest of the community will be “phased into” the Fund, or what the costs will be to employees; employers and the self-employed.
It is clear that any viable proposal for a National Health Insurance Fund must include a plan that explains how it will be sustained. In this context, if indeed the Social Security Board and the Government of Anguilla are hoping to implement it by September, whether it is a pilot project or not, it must include how it will be financed after it is rolled out. This financing aspect is a critical part of my concern because the Government promised that at some point the funds collected through the Interim Stabilization Levy would be used to fund a National Health Fund. However, in those circumstances it would also be necessary for a certain amount of funds to be accumulated before implementation, as was the case with the Public Service Pension Fund.
I just listened to a release from the Chairman of the Social Security Board that seems to have missed the point of my presentation at the meeting on Saturday. The Chairman has gone on the defensive about the food voucher programs that we never criticized. On the contrary, we tried to show that Social Security under this Government approved those programs after members of the AUM Government had severely criticized the AXA Cares Food Bank initiated by members of the Anguilla United Front. And one of our speakers also pointed out that the Social Security Board found out, as our Party did, that there is a real need for food assistance in the community and was therefore responding. There is no question that in doing so it helped the Government’s standing politically. I would hope that the Chairman is not denying that he is regarded as a political operative of this Government.
On the matter of the implementation of the “so-called pilot project” being contemplated by the Chairman’s own words — the fears that I expressed at Sandy Hill seem to be a reality. In his release the Chairman wrote:
The initiative criticized by Mr. Banks is only a pilot project with the plan to eventually roll out to all Anguilla a fully assessed and structured plan based on criteria set out by the Fund. What is so ironic is that the National Health Fund was the same fund that Mr. Banks tried and failed to implement years ago.
What I am saying to Mr. Alkins Rogers, I still maintain. It is a serious mistake to rush into implementing a pilot project that does not seem to have a well-thought out financing plan in place. No such plan has been publicized and it is obvious that no such plan exists. If such a plan is in place for implementation by September 2014, taxpayers should have already been made aware of it. They are the ones who have to pay.
Chairman Rogers also needs to know that what his Board seems to be contemplating is not the same National Health Fund we were working on in 2010. As a matter of fact, what he is proposing does not even seem to have a Fund. It simply seems to be relying on Social Security. And let me correct Mr. Rogers: The AUF Government, which he seems to equate with Victor Banks, did not fail to implement the National Health Fund. It was doing what I recommend needs to be done, that is, making sure that it is done right the first time. Such a Fund cannot afford to fail.
But since the Chairman is in the mood to clarify rumours and “redressing matters raised on political platforms”, it would be most helpful if he could also respond to the following:
• Will Mr. Elkin Richardson be retained by Social Security as a Consultant, and on what terms?
• Will Mr. Elkin Richardson, if retained, receive his pension as well as a contract payment?
• Will Board members be receiving a bonus of $11,000 for a job well done?
• Are there any further plans for reduction in the salaries of staff of Social Security?
• When will effective use be made of the Director of Social Security?
As I said on the platform, at Sandy Hill, I would be very happy if the Chairman, or the powers that be, would say that I am totally wrong about all of these rumours — even if they have the pleasure of calling me dirty names in the process. So, Mr. Chairman, you don’t need to be defensive or make oblique remarks about my sixteen years as the Minister responsible for Social Security. I have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of during that tenure, or for the work I did, along with the Hon. James Ronald Webster, to implement the system almost thirty-four years ago. I just want someone to please say it isn’t so.
