THE National Health Fund (NHF) will tomorrow begin the celebration of its fifth anniversary with a church service at the St Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Kingston.

The NHF, which began accepting enrolment of beneficiaries on Monday April 28, 2003, was established as a statutory organisation to provide financing for national health care, with its mission is to reduce the burden on health care in Jamaica.

At the end of March 2008 just over 350,000 people had enrolled for the two health cards offered under the Individual Benefits Programme of the fund.

The NHF Card provides subsidies to purchase more than 1,000 prescription drugs and is available to all residents of Jamaica who are living with any of the 15 chronic illnesses it covers.

The other card, under the Jamaica Drug for the Elderly Programme (JADEP), provides specified drugs free of cost to elderly citizens who pay $40 for each month's supply to the pharmacist in private sector.

According to the NHF, enrolment for its individual benefits programme began slowly in the first year but increased steadily since February 2004 when the fund assumed responsibility for the operation of JADEP and began the enrolment of JADEP beneficiaries.

"While enrolment for JADEP was ahead of the NHF card for over three years, the number of persons enrolling for both programmes each month has been very similar since August 2008," said the NHF.

In keeping with the increase in enrolment there have also been increases in claims, which the fund said have increased steadily over the five years as the popularity of the NHF grew. More than 200,000 claims are paid out each month, said the fund.

It added that in its five years of operation the fund paid for 4.63 million claims for drugs for its beneficiaries and the NHF subsidy for these claims amounted to $2.18 billion.

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