Senior Reporter/ Producer
akash.samaroo@cnc3.co.tt
As the Government is proposing sweeping changes to the laws governing the Children’s Life Fund, the Opposition is raising alarm over how much power it puts in the hands of the Minister of Health.
An Act to Amend the Children’s Life Fund became the first bill to be laid in Parliament by the new United National Congress (UNC) administration yesterday.
Health Minister Dr Lackram Bodoe initially proposed two major amendments to the existing law.
Clause 3 of the Bill would amend section 4(2) (b) of the Act by deleting the words “life threatening illnesses” and substituting the words “life limiting illnesses.”
Previously, a condition had to be deemed life threatening to qualify for consideration by the Children’s Life Fund Authority (CLFA).
And Clause 6 of the bill would allow the Minister of Health to review an application for a grant that has been rejected by the Board and therefore give the office holder the authority to override a rejection.
In explaining the rationale for the first amendment, Minister Bodoe said, “this will allow many of those cases denied in the past to now be facilitated and considered by the CLFA.”
Minister Bodoe said that information coming from the CLFA revealed that 472 applications for assistance were received between 2010 and 2025. He said 392 of those applications were approved. The minister said a common reason for the CLFA declining applications was that the child’s condition was not life threatening.
The life-limiting illnesses listed in the legislation under Schedule 3 are acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia, chronic myeloid leukaemia, mature B cell lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, neuroblastoma, osteosarcoma, medulloblastoma, retinoblastoma, soft tissue sarcoma, Wilms tumour, hypoplastic left, all single ventricle diseases, complex heart disease, tetralogy of Fallot, complex anorectal and genitourinary anomalies, pancreatic tumours, hepatic tumours, liver transplant, kidney transplant patients, severe aplastic anaemia, beta thalassemia, sickle cell disease, inherited bone marrow failure syndromes, and congenital hyperinsulinemia pheochromocytoma”.
The Government later indicated that a further amendment would come not to limit applications to the illnesses listed above. This came after Opposition MP Stuart Young cautioned that in seeking to stick to the list it may exclude other diseases.
Meanwhile in explaining the amendment for ministerial oversight, the Health Minister explained, “it gives the minister the power to review the rejected applications, not necessarily to change the outcome or the decision, but to ensure some oversight when citizens feel aggrieved. It also allows the minister and the ministry to monitor the declined cases so as to expand the schedule as more and more diseases become treatable.”
But Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stuart Young took serious issue with that amendment. He described this authority as giving the Health Minister a “superpower” and the broadest possible powers he said he has ever seen.
“I wouldn’t use the word hypocritical, but it is ironic that for the past ten years once any piece of legislation came to this House that mentions giving a minister a power to sneeze, there was objection by those on the other side. And this is where I caution the population, the first piece of legislation that we come to this House to debate in this new sitting, is legislation that is giving a minister a power with absolutely no review on it, superpowers I call it,” Young posited.
He also strongly advised the Government to not create legislation with an individual in mind. Young said while Minister Bodoe as a qualified doctor may be able to adjudicate on some decisions, if the office holder in the future did not have medical experience, then they would not have the expertise to make such a decision.
During Young’s contribution, further amendments were circulated. However, the Opposition MP said he could not review them while he was making his contribution and asked the Government to have more courtesy in the future.
Two of those amendments mentioned earlier by Minister Bodoe involve raising the ceiling for financial assistance through the fund from beyond its current $1 million cap due to what he said was increasing medical costs over the years. And the Health Minister said there could be provisions for foreign specialists to visit this country to provide expertise using local health facilities so as to possibly negate the need for overseas travel in some cases.
Contributing later, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the spirit of the law was that the fund should have been distributed generously, but said its administrators instead acted within the letter of the law. She called out the former government for its callous treatment of children in the last nine years and questioned why during that time the PNM administration did not see it necessary to make adjustments to the CLF even after a Joint Select Committee report on the fund in 2023 recommended that changes be made.
“Today, I want to dedicate these amendments to all the children, all the parents who unfortunately lost their children’s lives waiting on the fund. And we must make a promise today to do all that we can to never again allow this to happen,” the Prime Minister concluded.
The bill was passed late last night with amendments.
About the Children’s Life Fund
The Children’s Life Fund was established by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in November 2010, through an Act of Parliament: Act No. 12 of 2010, the Children’s Life Fund Act.
This initiative was spearheaded by then-Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, with her first Cabinet note after assuming office focusing on its establishment.
A unique aspect of its initial funding was that ten per cent of the Prime Minister’s salary and 5 per cent of ministers’ salaries were reportedly contributed to the fund. There has been no indication if the donations would continue during the UNC’s new term in office.
At that time, to qualify the child had to be a citizen of T&T, unmarried and under the age of 18, referred by a medical specialist, the required medical treatment must be unavailable locally and it had to be a life-threatening illness.