The One St. Maarten People Party was made to understand that our Social & Medical health insurance company SZV has decided as of October 1st 2013 to turn fully to generic medication where applicable. We trust that our health inspectorate is also doing their job by insuring that those medications that are being dispensed by our pharmacies are up to code and okay for public consumption.
"Our greatest problem, says Mr. Leo Richardson with this change of policy as it pertains to the distribution of this type of medication is the lack of respect given to the public on said matter". We believe that it is the responsibility of our health insurance company SZV to explain to the people what is generic medication? How does it measure up in comparison to the medication that the people were accustomed of using? Is it of an inferior quality and why the change?
Why wasn’t it published in the newspaper or announced on the radio of said changes? Keeping in mind, that we are a democratic society, shouldn’t we have been notified on such a change affecting our social and medical health care? There are people that have been using certain medications for years, only to be told that these medications will no longer be covered by their insurance company without certain stipulations. Be it as insignificant to the people making these changes, don’t we the people deserve to know beforehand? Don’t we have the right to question, debate or even object to such a move? These things should be made public knowledge and not done behind closed doors. Who are the people responsible for implementing said changes? Have we gotten to such a place where we the people must accept things without any explanation, be it cost efficiency, budgetary issues or whatever reason? We are sure there are frustrations on all ends, but this should not be the accepted norm of doing things. With a slogan that states "Because We Care" you would think they would consider a person’s piece of mind as well. We expected more from our health care providers also. Why haven’t you taken steps to enlighten the public on the matter? Especially since your first priority is to care for a person’s health. As a matter of fact we still believe that it can be done in a blitz advertising campaign informing the people about these changes, after all you owe it to the people. This attitude of force feeding "we the people" what you deem is for our best interest must stop. You can’t speak for someone if you’ve never listened or truly heard them speak. Our voice is just as important and we deserve to be heard on all matters especially if it pertains to our health.
The OSPP believes strongly in preventive health care for the people of St. Maarten and therefore intends to introduce more home grown gardening. The people of St. Maarten must become more health conscious by eating what they grow. One hundred pounds of prevention is better than a 100 pounds of cure.