More than 4,400 of Ja­maica’s en­ter­tain­ers and cre­atives have been giv­en ac­cess to life in­sur­ance.

This fol­lows the of­fi­cial launch of the Ja­maica En­ter­tain­ers and Cre­atives In­sur­ance Plan (JE­CIP) ear­li­er this week.

The ini­tia­tive, which was spear­head­ed by en­ter­tain­ment min­is­ter Olivia Grange, is avail­able to all en­ter­tain­ers and cre­atives who are list­ed on the Na­tion­al Reg­istry of En­ter­tain­ment and Cre­ative In­dus­tries Prac­ti­tion­ers (E-Reg­istry).

Guardian Life In­sur­ance Group will be ad­min­is­ter­ing the plan, which cov­ers reg­is­tered per­sons, aged six to 75 years, with the op­tion to ex­tend to age 99.

The cov­er­age is free for all reg­is­tered en­ter­tain­ers and cre­atives, which means no month­ly con­tri­bu­tions are re­quired.

Speak­ing dur­ing the con­tract sign­ing, Min­is­ter Grange im­plored en­ter­tain­ers and cre­atives to take ad­van­tage of the op­por­tu­ni­ty.

“We are work­ing so that the sit­u­a­tion we faced in 2017/2018 will not be re­peat­ed. I must tell you, in that year, 19 en­ter­tain­ers died, 70 per cent of whom died with­out ad­e­quate in­sur­ance cov­er­age to pro­vide fund­ing for suit­able fu­ner­al arrange­ments,” the en­ter­tain­ment min­is­ter re­vealed.

“This was par­tic­u­lar­ly em­bar­rass­ing, be­cause many of these en­ter­tain­ment and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers have served and giv­en so much to our coun­try,” she said.

“I don’t like to see us hav­ing to pass the hat around to bury any­body, and so it is im­por­tant that you take this very, very se­ri­ous­ly,” Grange em­pha­sised.

Ear­li­er this year, the Min­istry’s En­ter­tain­ment Di­vi­sion com­plet­ed a small ran­dom sur­vey of 142 per­sons on the reg­istry, which re­vealed that most re­spon­dents had an in­ter­est in par­tic­i­pat­ing in group life in­sur­ance. How­ev­er, 63 per cent said they were un­able to af­ford health in­sur­ance.

With that said, the Min­is­ter em­pha­sised that the Group Life In­sur­ance Plan is non-con­trib­u­to­ry.

“Phase two of the pro­gramme will be up and run­ning in Jan­u­ary. We’re launch­ing life now, in No­vem­ber, and come Jan­u­ary 2025, the group health in­sur­ance will be up and run­ning,” she fur­ther in­formed.

Grange ex­plained that the cov­er­age will be com­pre­hen­sive, in­cor­po­rat­ing hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion, surgery, ac­ci­dents, ma­ter­ni­ty, ma­jor med­ical, and over­seas emer­gency med­ical care for those who may be tour­ing.

The Min­is­ter al­so urged par­tic­i­pants to iden­ti­fy ben­e­fi­cia­ries, so their es­tate can be prop­er­ly tak­en care of.

Mean­while, Guardian’s Group Head of Life, Health and Pen­sions, Er­ic Hosin, said:

“We are very pleased to be a part of this, be­cause we know how im­por­tant it is that you take care of your fam­i­lies.”

“It’s not just you who feel the pain; it is your fam­i­ly mem­bers that will be feel­ing more pain. So those who are your de­pen­dents would be very hap­py to know that you have this in place for them, for their ben­e­fit and for you, in case of an ac­ci­dent,” he said.

The Act­ing Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Labour and So­cial Se­cu­ri­ty, Dione Jen­nings, who was al­so present at the con­tract sign­ing, said:

“The Min­istry… joins with the Min­istry of Cul­ture, Gen­der, En­ter­tain­ment and Sport in a unit­ed mis­sion to en­sure that every Ja­maican has ac­cess to the so­cial pro­tec­tion they de­serve, and no one is left be­hind.”

“As a Min­istry, we recog­nise the tan­gi­ble lega­cy that you con­tin­ue to leave with us, and we want to en­sure that this lega­cy will be for the build­ing up of Ja­maica,” she said.

En­ter­tain­ers and cre­atives who would like to be a part of the plan are en­cour­aged to get reg­is­tered on­line or at the En­ter­tain­ment Min­istry’s of­fices. —KINGSTON, Ja­maica (CMC)