Athletes urged to sign up for insurance plan
KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, is urging the country’s sportsmen and women to sign up for the Jamaican Athletes Insurance Plan (JAIP), and take advantage of the associated benefits.
Grange made the appeal during the opening ceremony for the regional conference on the ‘Strategic use of Intellectual Property in Sport’ held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston this morning.
The minister argued that the various sporting associations play a critical role in ensuring that the athletes can benefit from the plan.
“You must ensure that your athletes sign up for the Insurance Plan, once they represent the country nationally or internationally. We have a case in point right now where an athlete was not signed up for the insurance plan, and now we have to find ways and means of addressing the cost of his rehabilitation,” she said.
The plan is being implemented at just under $60 million per annum for athletes drawn from 28 of the more than 40 sport associations, whose members comprise junior and senior athletes who represent Jamaica in international competitions.
The plan provides group health, life and personal accident coverage for beneficiaries aged seven to 75.
JAIP is being financed by the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), National Health Fund (NHF), Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), and the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund. Grange said development of the insurance plan is one of the Government’s means of investing in the well being of the nation’s athletes.
In the meantime, she noted that other strategies being pursued by the Government to ensure the country maximises the opportunities presented from sport include the commissioning of a study on the impact and contribution of sport to the Jamaican economy, the rehabilitation of existing sport facilities as well as the development of new facilities.
Other strategies include the review and revision of earlier proposals on establishing Jamaica as an international athletics training base, establishment of a committee focused on international events, the establishment of a National Sport Museum, and partnering with the University of the West Indies on the establishment of a Sports Medicine Centre.
