Unable to understand why there has been a sharp decrease in the number of pensioners signing up for its National Insurance Gold Health Plan, the labour and social security ministry has taken the programme on the road.

So far only 32,000 of the country’s estimated 70,000 pensioners have signed up, and most of them were from the Corporate Area. Of that number, 20,000 signed up within the first two months after the programme was launched last December.

The number of applicants has since dwindled to almost a trickle, said NI Gold national director Denzil Thorpe. In an attempt to get more pensioners to register, the ministry has been holding town meetings across the island.

The waning interest, Thorpe said as he spoke of the benefits of NI Gold, was befuddling. Pensioners’ out of pocket cost is minimal and there are no monthly premiums because the programme is financed by the National Insurance Scheme Fund, he said.

“The only payment that a pensioner would have to make when accessing the plan is that, with some of the actual claims, they will be expected to make a co-payment,” the director said. “For instance, for the surgeon’s fee they would have to make a co-payment of $1,000 to access. $30,000 (in medical care).”

The only requirement is that beneficiaries must be NIS pensioners and they are automatically enrolled into the Blue Cross system, he added.

The NI Gold Health Plan, Thorpe stressed, was quite comprehensive and it offers benefits that are not available under the National Health Fund.

“So for instance, it does not only include the prescription drugs, it also includes doctor’s office visits, dental and optical, diagnostic tests, hospitalisation, surgery. surgeon’s fees, assistant surgeon’s fees,” he said.

Upcoming stops on the NI Gold town meetings, which are referred to as the NI Gold road show, include today’s stop in St James, another in Westmoreland on May 27, and one for Hanover in the first week in June. The road show will close off in St Catherine, Kingston and St Andrew.

Organisers have already covered eight parishes – St Mary, Manchester, Clarendon, St Thomas, St Elizabeth, St Ann, Portland and Trelawny.

The turnout in some of these areas, Thorpe said, has been impressive.

He described the interaction between officials and pensioners as extremely beneficial in terms of providing feedback and highlighting the concerns of pensioners. The highlight of the road show, he added, had been the Portland meeting, where there was a tremendous show of support from pensioners.

“I can’t say how grateful we are to the people in the parishes, that is our parish network, who do the initial organisation of this entire event,” he said. “They are the ones who get the pensioners out, and the service that they have been giving to the pensioners at these functions is really just an extension of the service that we have been giving pensioners on a daily basis.”

The road shows, he explained, had been seen as a better option than just using the media to get their message across.

“The thinking behind it was that it is all good and well to send information out, but part of the problem is that some people choose not to read and, not everyone has access to the electronic media. Most importantly, however, there is little feedback via both methods,” Thorpe pointed out.

Through the road shows NI Gold officials, he said, had made contact with approximately 4,000 pensioners islandwide to date.

“I think we can immediately see the impact of the town meetings, but we still have some way to go,” Thorpe said.

The NI Gold road shows are also used as an opportunity to get pensioners to sign up with the Electoral Office of Jamaica and Blue Cross.

“We not only have them come out and speak to them but, we have the Electoral Office doing on-the-spot registration for the programme as well, and that has been tremendous,” Thorpe said. “I can remember when in St Ann, we had expected to have 250 persons attending, but eventually over 600 came. And on that day, the Electoral Office staff registered over 200 pensioners – just in that one day.”

NI Gold officials rely heavily on word of mouth to get their message across, and one obvious impact of the meetings is that new applicants encourage other pensioners to sign up.