President of the Dominica Council on Ageing (DCOA) Ophelia Olivaccé Marie has said that the council plans to create a pilot for a health insurance programme for senior citizens in Dominica.
Marie said at a recent DCOA press conference that the plan has already been endorsed by the council.
“The vibrant senior citizens are looking at a pilot for health insurance for seniors. It has already been endorsed by the council under the last President,” she said. “It is moving slowly but we are looking to link with partners locally and abroad to see if something can happen.”
Marie said further that there are challenges concerning abuse of the elderly on island and some are afraid to report it.
“Unfortunately, some of the seniors do not want to report on what is happening to them, because many times, the people who are being the abusers, are close people to them, family, those who are being paid to take care of them,” she explained. “Some of them get their hair pulled; some of them are told, ‘you are not going to watch Young and Useless today, forget about the programmes you like’.”
According to her, some of the senior citizens are being asked to change their political preferences.
“They want to take them to the booth [polling booth] and when they don’t put the X where whoever brings them want, they are told that you are staying there; somebody will pick you up,” she stated.
Meantime, Supernumerary member of the DCOA, Colin Bully has identified loneliness as one the challenges faced by Dominica’s elderly and that, he said, has been a major concern.
“Their children – those who support them – are not doing a good job; they are abandoned sometimes…,” he remarked. Their biggest fear is that they do not have money to survive.”
Furthermore, he said there are a number of senior citizens in Dominica who own houses and land but they can’t go to the bank to get a loan, while the greatest fear of others he works with, he says, is having no money to be buried.
The problem highlighted by Ms Marie cannot be solved by health insurance. Those are social welfare problems. The “yes we care” government policy should be examine by the group to eradicate the exploitation of the elderly. Ms Marie identified problems that need immediate attention which has nothing to do with insurance but has to do with uncaring people who are not interested in the welfare of the elderly.
There are homes for senior citizens both private and public. I understand that a few are run by churches. So if Mrs Marie and her group are interested in the welfare of the elderly she and her group can work with the different providers to ensure that these people are well treated.
This is not a matter to be given political coverage. Doing so would make the elderly pawns in the political game which would be detriment to the interest and welfare of the seniors.
Why industrial insurance for only senior citizens. Most of them are retired with limited disposable income which will minimize your customer base.
Next you have a government policy that provides free medical and hospital treatment for senior citizens who are 60 and over.
Maybe a national health insurance company can be organized for all those who are outside the 60 plus government programme. With a population of 70 thousand such a company is viable. We need to replace foreign health companies with our own.
Is this article about a pilot health insurance programme for seniors or elderly abuse/neglect? I don’t see the correlation DCOA president. I expected details about the pilot health insurance in a article entitled “DCOA to introduce health insurance pilot for senior citizens.” Wasted read.
DNO
I am curious as to why you identified Colin Bully ( even pointing out his position to the left of Ophelia but refrained from naming the Sleeping individual ( or attention divided male ) on Ophelia’s right, nor the beautiful young lady also in the photo .
I am just curious !!!!!!!!!!
And don’t you dare say its because their names were not available.
ADMIN: If you were trying to be funny we believe you achieved your goal. The individuals were identified because they were also mentioned in the story.
DNO, sometimes you are too nice . This person does not deserve an answer. This nameless is just trying to create roro that has the value of childish mischief.
Joseph
I will treat your comment with the contempt it deserves .
AMEN
Admin
I have just adjusted my Linette bois , re-read this 3 more times and cannot see where ”the individuals were identified because they were also mentioned in the story ”
Hey is it that I have lost my ”Reading English” ability ?
or is it hidden by small print between the lines?
why does it seem Ok to tell blatant lies in Dominica these days ?
This is becoming too common a practice.
Please read the article again, aloud to yourself this time .
ADMIN: You read this 3 times and still did not see where they are mentioned in the story? Perhaps you do need to have your vision checked.