(CNS): The Cayman Islands needs to invest in a social safety net and policies to improve its “gross national happiness”, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Chris Saunders has said. Of the six metrics that drive a county’s happiness levels used by the United Nations for its World Happiness Report, the one that counts most is social support, “someone to count on in case of an emergency”, he said at a recent press briefing. But he estimated that 95% of families are “just one medical emergency away from bankruptcy”.
During the press briefing to launch the 2021 Population and Housing Census Report last week, Saunders said it was not a positive thing for even the nicest country if people worry as they lie in bed at night about their health and how they would feed their family if something happened to them.
“So the question is, how do we put the social support in place?” he said, noting that the data from the census had given the government the type of metrics it needs to work on new initiatives. The minister pointed out that the infrastructure needed to support Cayman’s growing population was only part of the picture.
The mental health and social well-being of its people were more important, but these have been historically neglected, he said, which means that people are not equipped to help themselves and, in turn, benefit from the country’s economic success.
“It is the social and mental and well-being that we have for a long time basically abandoned and not focused on,” he said, adding that government plans to look at the overall health of all civil servants in partnership with CINICO.
“We are looking at launching a programme right now where… we want to do an executive medical check on just about every single public servant,” the minister revealed. “Is it going to cost us a lot of money? Yes, it will. But… when you look at where we spend money on healthcare, 80% of it is on emergencies.”
Saunders added that it was important to help people be healthier and get regular checks before they get really sick, pre-empting those potentially serious health problems, which will save the government money in the long run.
See the country rankings in the UN World Happiness Report.
See the full press briefing on CIGTV below:
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
Free turtle meat on Friday’s for Caymanians.
Free Friday Fillipino Daycare for ordinary families funded by the wealthy
If Saunders wants to improve my happiness he will remove stamp duties for Caymanians as he said he would do on the ReSharper hour.
CNS: the main thing the top 10 have in common is they are frozen wastelands inhabited by blond people. I think it’s their wintertime course of antidepressants that keeps them happy.
Blondes do have more fun! 😀
His resignation would go a long way…
All Civil Servants have CINICO; why not add a wellness benefit to their CINICO coverage and send the civil servants to HSA for an executive check? It sounds like the Gov intends to schedule $1200 exec checks at Health City for each Civil servant…
You can also look online for FREE wellness webinars and courses on Udemy, coursera, etc and make it mandatory for civil servants to sit the courses to learn about mental and physical wellness – they can do it right at their desks and the confirmation of completion can be emailed to their managers.
There are also many local dieticians, personal trainers, doctors etc who would gladly share their expertise at workshops which the Government could host…
This quest for social happiness does not have to bankrupt the country – nothing stresses residents of a country more than a Government with no budget left to maintain infrastructure, pay staff, service vital public departments, maintain its welfare commitments and provide educational advancements because it squandered money when it should have been investing in areas where returns could be realized or saving for emergencies.
I appreciate this Government’s efforts and their concern for the people – but we must stay focused on the fact that the world economy and environment is shifting and our Gov has to keep a fat cushion in case of disasters, wars, sanctions and other force majeure that can strike without warning….
I am happy and proud of many of PACT’s initiatives but I am also becoming gravely concerned about some of the areas it is throwing away money (often in the millions) – for example the failed seaweed pumping that any blind man could see was not going to work!
You are assuming that they are throwing the money away because they are careless or incompetent. Have you considered it might be more to do with who receives the money than what it is spent on, or how it could be spent more effectively. Like you, I would feel far more reassured if the supplier of these “executive” healthcare checks was the non profit making HSA rather than a private provider – but what makes me suspect its the latter.
Caymanians don’t really want to be happy. Doesn’t feel natural. Look at the comments on this site.
4 day work week.
I honestly would prefer 4x 10 day days than 5x 8 hour days. It would be so nice to have an extra day to do groceries or other errands and then have the weekend to enjoy and relax. Instead of having to run around on Saturday and then spend all Sunday boozing on the beach.
15% income tax on all foreign workers making more than 40k per annum!
Why would it be fair on just foreign workers? Any tax should be more on caymanians as they use the public services the tax revenue pays for.
You mean like native Americans?
What to we want? Foreigners to pay for our stuff. When do we want it? Now, we are very entitled.
There wouldn’t be many foreign workers at that rate. Even 5% and this place clears out permanently. They are already paying 20+% consumption duty plus various inefficiency and quality taxes. Margins are tighter than you think.
I call BS on that, the threat of mass exodus has never materialised
LOL
This is the most ignorant proposal I have ever seen! Another stupid idea to spend from the public purse, that money that should go to the poor, not top tier civil servants who already receive overstuffed paychecks. Yes? I said poor people! We have poor people and children who are starving, people who don’t know if they will have a roof over their heads tomorrow. These are not lazy people but people who are genuinely struggling in these islands with the astronomically high cost of living. I expected better of Chris Saunders but very glad that he has clearly showing that he is not fit to become the Premier, as I understand he so desires.
Turtles All The Way Down
Legalize weed.
That will make me happy and put a smile on the dial:-)
It will also provide the government with more revenue to fund these social programmes!
And require many more social programs as productivity, education and stocks of Doritos diminish.
And reduce drunk driving, accidents and deaths from DUIs. The horror
There’s a gateway in our minds
That leads somewhere out there, far beyond this plane
Where reptile aliens made of light
Cut you open and pull out all your pain
Tell me how you make illegal
Something that we all make in our brain
Some say you might go crazy
But then again, it might make you go sane
Every time I take a look
Inside that old and fabled book
I’m blinded and reminded of
The pain caused by some old man in the sky
Marijuana, LSD
Psilocybin, and DMT
They all changed the way I see
But love’s the only thing that ever saved my life
So don’t waste your mind on nursery rhymes
Or fairy tales of blood and wine
It’s turtles all the way down the line
So to each their own ’til we go home
To other realms our souls must roam
To and through the myth that we all call space and time
They aren’t even trying to hide it. They dont care at all anout the future of caymanians….just buying enough votes with welfare gifts for next election. Kind of sad in the last dozen years PPM and PACT have destroyed for selfish gain the national system that sincerely caring and intelligent Caymanians built over decades.
DP – there is a safety net. It is called the Caymanian Protection Law. Just enforce that and almost all would be remedied!
Yes while they’re in the looking back to fix mistakes mood (e.g. reinstating the Emancipation public holiday) why don’t they reinstate the Caymanian Protection Law. Changing that was a huge mistake.
The Caymanian Protection Law no longer exists dear. It was replaced by The Immigration Law of the Cayman Islands.
Ummm, no it wasn’t. They just changed the name and stopped following it. Dear.
If you can find a way to lower the cost of food/fuel many people would be a lot happier. I know to an extent the cost is fueled by the countries we import from but they could reduce the amount of duty that is put on it. Particularly as CIG said not long ago that there was a surplus in the government purse.
Diagnosing visible obesity, and confronting rampant unexplored emotional eating, will not endear a workforce, or contribute to self-esteem and general happiness. Patients weighting over 300lbs will be shamed and turned away in the lobby for they are ineligible for executive medical stress tests as they exceed load rating for the treadmill and heart sensors can’t detect the heartbeat through the layers of girth. Why not try a donut eating contest if you just want to hit those happy buttons? Let’s try to find a positive social idea that benefits all of society (not just select civil servants) and that doesn’t cost KYD$10,000,000 every few months. eg. Health Minister/CMO could suggest our population “Eat More Plants”, for free, and skip the medical diagnosis/recurring costs that in many cases will instruct the very same prescription.
OMG….this round of MLAs isn’t even trying to hide their stupidity…it’s like they are proudly rejoicing while they destroy our futures.
You can only try to hide something that you are aware of….
Eats less and move more is the key to happiness!
Healthcare clearly needs to be nationalized.
What I am seeing in Cayman is private insurance providers making profit from health insurance premiums when people are younger and more healthy only to increase the cost of insurance premiums on people that are older to such an extent that it is not affordable and is forcing the cost of caring for the elderly on the government.
Say hello to income tax.
Why? With 2 bedroom units selling for 1 MILLION DOLLARS, there is an ample number of investors/buyers who can pay a higher duty.
i would be happy if if cig stopped wasting peoples money.
tax and spend is all pact know how to do
PACT talk is different but they have done nothing to address or resolve the real problems caused by 8 years of PPM
i keep saying it….
cayman is becoming a welfare state.
you will have 3 classes in the future:
super rich expats
low cost imported labour
caymanians living on state handouts.
At some point the super rich expats leave. They don’t have to stay here, and few do happily, knowing how their life looks and operates back in the real world. Cayman is slowly getting better/more tolerable than it used to be.
PACT seems to be a Socialist government which has never worked in other countries. They also now seem to be jumping on the Black Power bandwagon which is even worse
CNS: If you look at the list of the “happiest” countries (link at the bottom of the article), they are all very successful social democracies with a strong safety net. Emphasis on “democracy”. Venezuela, which is often cited as a prime example of why socialism doesn’t work, is ranked ‘Authoritarian’ by the Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index.
Your email address will not be published.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Cayman News Service
