by Rick Lowe

There has been a lot of talk lately about the implementation of a Nationalized Health Care scheme and while chatting with a friend recently we got on the subject and he had these interesting thoughts:

“With the experience of numerous other countries in the world that have implemented government run health care systems, some since the late 1800’s, there is ample evidence that this is not the way to go.

The issue seems to boil down to government not getting enough money to run the Nationalized Health Care scheme at their facilities like the Princess Margaret Hospital, Sandilands, The Rand in Grand Bahama and the many clinics located throughout the islands.

After giving this matter serious consideration, rather than add another tax as proposed, I am convinced that more than enough money could be raised through a national lottery system.

A lottery is painless as the thousands of Bahamians that allegedly buy ‘numbers’ and foreign lottery tickets will attest. They get the fun of playing the lottery – with a chance to win a major cash prize – while paying for their publicly provided health care and the other benefits that will accrue for education etc without implementing further direct taxation.”

What do you think?