BARP on the hunt

The Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) is actively engaging the insurance market in an effort to identify a replacement medical insurance plan for its members.

In February, BARP received a notice from the Management Team of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL) advising of their decision not to renew the medical insurance plan when it comes up for renewal on August 1, 2016.

 

“We are working very hard trying to get a replacement, which we hope to achieve sometime this year,” BARP President Edward Bushell assured.

 

The health scheme which covers only 1 600 of the near 40 000 BARP membership for the past eight years, had become unsustainable as ICBL was paying out more in claims than it was collecting in premiums.

 

Speaking at the launch of the “Golden Soca” Crop Over show yesterday, Bushell pointed out that, “People tend to think that all of BARP’s members belong to the medical scheme – that nearly 40 000 people now are without medical insurance and that is incorrect. 

 

Only 1 600 members of BARP belong to the medical scheme.”

 

He went on to explain that 67 per cent of membership are still working and most of them would already belong to a medical scheme at their workplace, and therefore would not join another.

 

“Those who joined the medical scheme of BARP are those who have finished working and once you retire, your medical scheme usually goes with the retirement,” he stated.

 

“The average age of those persons in the medical scheme is 72 years. After you get to 72 years old, you are more prone to illness than when you were 22… As a matter of fact, 99 people in that scheme are below the age of 70 years,” he further disclosed. (TL)