Just back in Anguilla, from spending quality time in the United States with his family, and missing several meetings of the House of Assembly, Mr. Evans Rogers the Elected Representative for District 3 (Road North), is questioning the newly-increased medical fees.
Adding his dissenting voice to the voices of a number of other persons in Anguilla, Mr. Rogers, the former Minister of Health and Social Development, expressed his views on Just the Facts, the Anguilla United Front Opposition’s programme on Radio Anguilla. He appeared with the main producer of the programme, the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, on Monday, February 22.
He noted that the increased medical fees were not included in the budget address but were suddenly announced afterwards. “We have to thank the British Government for the injection of capital in our healthcare facilities, and all the other Anguilla Programme projects but, realistically, at this point in time, I really and truly cannot understand the reason why they [the Anguilla Government] agreed to these increases,” he stressed. He was of the view that there was no need for the Government to rush to increase the medical fees because of the economic situation brought on by COVID-19.
He continued: “The increases which I have with me include: laboratory fees, an increase of 40%; radiology: 30%; surgery: 50%; pharmaceuticals: from 40 to 60%; normal maternity deliveries: 25%; consultation: 100%; consumables: from 30-50%; dietaries to be charged at 100 EC dollars per day. It is troubling to me.”
Mr. Rogers said he understood the pressure that the Government was under, in terms of increasing revenue and cutting expenditure, but he thought it was untimely for such increases which were impacting everyone in Anguilla. “When you look at the basic structure where revenue is generated in Anguilla, the largest percent of that comes through the hospitality industry,” he stated. “And if you have to close the country down, you are closing down your main revenue earner. How do you expect for those hospitality workers, and all of us, to be able to pay these increased medical fees?
“The last thing you would want to do is to improve healthcare services, and then have the services available, but the citizenry cannot afford to pay for them during a global pandemic.”
Mr. Rogers added: “I really and truly would like to hear the rationale, from our Government, with respect to increasing the medical fees.”
