The Chief Executive Officer of the LBJ Hospital in American Samoa has suggested an earmark tax specifically for health care.
The hospital had submitted a budget request of 39 million US dollars but this has been reduced to 30 million dollars.
The CEO, Patricia Tindall, says the earmark would ensure that hospital services are funded annually.
She says the hospital would need 5.5 million dollars to adequately fund the off-island referral program, however, there is no funding for the referral programme in the fiscal year 2010 budget.
"If we could be sure there was some kind of tax for healthcare, and it was consistent and annual, then it would really help fund the consistency of the programmes that we run at LBJ."
The Chief Executive Officer of the LBJ Hospital in American Samoa, Patricia Tindall.
