OPINION: Health Care Under Siege—Why It Took a ‘Financial Loss’ for Governor Bryan to See the Tax Truth
RESCUE MISSION? Governor Albert Bryan Jr. announces he is weighing emergency executive action to waive local excise and gross receipts taxes on critical medications to prevent a total collapse of the Territory's pharmacy network. (Photo: Government House)
By JOHN McCArtHY / St. Croix Sun Investigative Reporter
ST. CROIX — Governor Albert Bryan Jr. announced today that he is "actively evaluating" emergency executive action to waive taxes on critical medications. It’s a move framed as a heroic rescue of our local pharmacies, but if you look closely, it’s actually a stunning admission of a systemic failure.
For years, local business owners and residents have screamed into the wind about the suffocating weight of the territory’s tax structure. Now, it seems the wind has finally started blowing back toward Government House.
The Breaking Point
The Governor is considering temporary waivers for excise taxes, gross receipts taxes, and customs-related costs on a specific list of high-cost prescription drugs. Why now? Because local pharmacies are literally losing money every time they help a patient.
According to the administration, federal Medicare pricing changes are being implemented using a "mainland cost structure" that ignores the expensive reality of life in the Virgin Islands.
The Absurdity: Unlike a pharmacy in Miami or New York, a St. Croix pharmacy has to pay shipping, customs duties, and a 5% gross receipts tax just to get a life-saving pill onto the shelf.
The Margin: Federal reimbursement doesn't care about our "geographic realities". When those costs are factored in, our pharmacies aren't just "squeezed"—they are bleeding out.
A Belated Realization
"This is not about businesses. It is about patients," the Governor said.
But let’s be honest: it’s about both. You cannot have patients without the businesses that serve them. By admitting that these taxes are making medication "unsustainable," the Governor is inadvertently admitting that the territory's own tax policy is a barrier to staying alive.
It took the threat of pharmacies closing their doors and seniors losing access to diabetes and heart disease meds for the administration to finally consider touching the "sacred cow" of gross receipts taxes.
The 'Emergency' of Our Own Making
While we welcome any relief that keeps our pharmacies open, we have to ask: Why does it take an "emergency" to acknowledge that our tax structure is out of touch with reality?
If the Governor can waive these taxes for a "limited set" of drugs to save a pharmacy's bottom line, what does that say about the taxes we pay on everything else—from groceries to electricity—that are equally "unsustainable" for the average family?
