The Briceño administration says it’s using lottery profits to expand Belize’s National Health Insurance program. According to the Prime Minister, sales from the popular Boledo lottery have brought in about seventeen million dollars in profits—money the government plans to invest in making healthcare more accessible and reliable for all Belizeans. But the plan isn’t without controversy. At today’s Special Senate Sitting, U.D.P Senator Patrick Faber criticized the move, arguing that the NHI expansion mainly benefits private healthcare providers rather than the public.
Patrick Faber, U.D.P. Senator
“The government speaks of investing in hospitals and expanding NHI. Let us not get be distracted by the fanfare of NHI. It’s a hussle. NHI under the PUP is a hassle. They’re now rolling out NHI to Cayo. You see NHI in concept is not a bad idea. But what PUP does is take the money and instead of giving it to the public hospitals or the public clinics and have them use the money to best provide the primary are thars needed and then beef uo ehateer need to be beefed up by paying private entities, they don’t do that. They bypass the public sector and they give all the monies to private entities, private cronies, to help them get fat, to help them get rich. That is the PUP way and that is what they’re doing. This is a kind of retirement plan.”
