One of the promises in the PUP Plan Belize manifesto is the full national rollout of NHI for their first term. But with the government broke and COVID taking first priority, will that really happen? Last night we asked Minister of Health and Wellness Chebat if his government is budgeting for a full NHI rollout:
Hon. Michel Chebat - Minister of Health and Wellness "I do believe that we will be seeing some dramatic changes in our hospitals and our facilities and we have a commitment under Plan Belize, our commitment is to roll out NHI and so definitely when we have our new budget there will be elements in there that will allow us for the complete rollout of NHI throughout the country."
Jules Vasquez
"So, you all are maintaining the commitment that in the new budget there will be elements of this National rollout of NHI but it won't be completely rolled out at that time?"
Michel Chebat "Well NHI not even from when it was started was a complete rollout, it was rolled out in phases and that is gonna happen again we're gonna start rolling out Orange Walk and in the Cayo district which are the districts that do not yet have NHI."
Chebat would not make a commitment to fully restore funding to polyclinics - those had been cut by 40% in the last administration.
