The Dominican Medical Association (AMD) has called a 24-hour nationwide doctors’ strike beginning at 8 am tomorrow. The strike will affect all regular services in public hospitals and clinics. It does not affect private clinics and hospitals and emergency services will still be offered in public hospitals. The strike is to press the AMD’s demand for a major pay hike after talks between the organization and the Public Health Ministry failed to reach agreement. The AMD leadership claimed that the Ministry had only offered a fraction of what the doctors want, and conditioned it on Congressional passage of new taxes to pay for it. They returned to past claims that they cannot confide in a dialogue headed by Public Health Minister Altagracia Guzmán Marcelino. For her part, the Minister yesterday released to the press, without waiting for Finance Minister Daniel Toribio to sign off on it first, draft legislation that envisions a 40% pay hike financed by raising taxes and fees on motor vehicles. Under the proposal, all motor vehicles (except those for public transport, ambulances and funeral vehicles) 10 years or older would start paying RD$750 per year in taxes (about double current rates), and those under 10 years of age would pay RD$1,500. The cost of first-time registration of a vehicle and getting its plates would soar to RD$1,800 under the bill.
