Members of the local entertainment and cultural industries will soon have a dedicated health insurance scheme.
Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, made the disclosure at the Rebel Salute media launch on Wednesday (December 21) at the ROK Hotel, downtown Kingston.
She said that local actuarial consulting firm, Eckler Limited, has been engaged to assist in the tender process.
The culture minister said the establishment of the scheme will provide critical assistance to practitioners who have made significant contributions to the development of brand Jamaica.
“Wherever you go in the world they speak about our music, and I felt it was important that as part of our Jamaica 60 legacy… we ensure that we introduce insurance coverage for our artists, our writers, our cultural practitioners, to ensure that they benefit from what they have provided to this country,” she said.
Grange noted that some veterans of the cultural and entertainment fraternities, who have reached an advanced stage of life, are in need of this kind of assistance.
“Every day, we lose one of our veterans. If they are very ill or they pass, there is always an issue about dealing with the funeral; there is always an issue about dealing with the health insurance or health coverage, and I thought it was about time,” she said.
Grange said the insurance coverage is a way of giving back to a community whose talents in promoting Jamaican culture on the international stage have been inestimable.
