Life
Jamaica: Free health care to stay – Minister
After raising mountain of complaints about the ill effects of the no-user-fee policy that was implemented by the former Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) government, the new People’s National Party (PNP) administration say it has no early plans to abolish it.
Opposition leader Andrew Holness has been insisting that the no-user fee programme, initiated by the former JLP administration under Bruce Golding, should remain in place. He warned that it would be a retrograde step to abolish the programme.
Dr Fenton Ferguson, minister of health, has said the Government’s no-user fees policy in the public-health system is under review.
“It was never intended to remove the no-user fee policy,” Ferguson said. “What we will be doing in the first three months, then six months to a year, is to review it. We have put that high on the agenda for review because I have stated on many occasions that it was this PNP administration that introduced the removal of user fees for children 0-18 years,” he added.
