Insurance - Haiti Observer Blog

On Monday, September 21, 2015, Dr. Max Rudolph Saint-Albin, the Director General of OFATMA (Insurance Office of Industrial Occupational Accidents, Sickness and Maternity) during a press conference, has reported the progress and advancement of his institution. He took the opportunity to announce about a social security project and his organization's plan to rationalize the insurance sector so that it can bring more people under the insurance umbrella.

Out of the total, about half a million insured in Haiti, the number of insured under OFATMA is about 80,000 officers from the Public sector. OFATMA is presently partnered in Haiti with 44 hospitals, 124 doctors, funeral homes and pharmacies. Although accident insurance to the industries under cover is mandatory, but sickness and maternity benefit covers are optional. The emergency care covers provided through OFATMA partners are free of charges provided it is claimed honestly.

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On Friday, July 31st, the Prime Minister, Evans Paul, in the presence of the First Lady, Sophia Martelly and several of his ministers, participated in the launching ceremony of the "Maternity health insurance for the informal sector" of the Office of Insurance Work Accident, Sickness and Maternity (OFATMA).

OFATMA is a social solidarity fund created to insure employees of state and state recognized institutions. After 48 years of its creation, President Martelly has implemented a national insurance plan for employees of informal sectors including small and medium-sized enterprises. The new insurance plan will provide comprehensive protective cover against accident and diseases to all persons engaged in different professions, vocations or self employed who were never engaged or have worked in state or organized sector.

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Travel insurance has become a must-have in recent years. Consumers pay higher retail prices for goods and the increasing costs of medical care are making it a more of a necessity.

Here are some guidelines for travel insurance:

• Find out what travel insurance covers. It could be a trip cancellation, death or dismemberment, medical and dental services, medical transport services, luggage loss, and indemnity against cruise liner bankruptcies.

• Check your homeowner/renters' policies for what travel coverage they provide. Also your auto/life insurance policies' coverage for travel outside the country.

• Credit cards routinely offer travel coverage for accidental death and dismemberment, so check it out.

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Haiti is subject to catastrophic earthquakes, violent hurricanes, and deluges of rain on an intermittent basis.

The amount of damage done by these natural disasters adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars. While in the U.S., a significant number of the population carries disaster insurance, in Haiti its population of 10 million carries virtually none. Data collected shows only 0.3 percent insured against disaster occurrences. To address the financial loss the island experiences every time a natural disaster hits, two agencies have proposed solutions.

The International Finance Corporation, division of the World Bank, is launching a $1.96 million initiative to insure 70,000 small business owners without adequate disaster coverage. Without insurance, business owners can't pay their accounts, because losses have devoured whatever capital left. And a low credit rating disqualifies them for loans necessary to get their businesses operating again.

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