CHURCH members are getting more support as Sagicor Life Jamiaca has elevated its Church Mate insurance offering to Church Mate Plus. The enhanced insurance plan, originally designed for churches a decade ago, now provides increased coverage for members, aligning with Sagicor’s commitment to cater to underserved markets and make insurance accessible to individuals not covered through regular employment.

Sean Edwards, director of sales at Sagicor Life, discussed the overdue nature of these additional offerings in an exclusive interview with the Jamaica Observer. He highlighted the evolving needs of churches, where members often lack family support and the church becomes their primary source of care.

“We have recognised that the church, being a charitable organisation, relies on the contributions of others, and also that churches have a lot of members who may not have families, and the church leadership literally is their family. And so what we found is that when people become ill, when they have critical illnesses, and also when they pass, the church has to — or, want of a better word — pass the hat in order to cover those expenses, and it has become burdensome for many churches,” he explained.

The Church Mate Plus, launched in June this year, responds to the growing demand for additional offerings such as hospitalisation and coverage for critical illness charges. Currently, just under 300 churches have enrolled in Church Mate, all of which are expected to transition to Church Mate Plus upon their renewal. In highlighting the upgrades made to the insurance plan, Edwards detailed that the policy is departing from the group plan model under Church Mate.

“With Church Mate Plus, it’s sold as an individual-type policy, and so one person from a church will be able to purchase this as opposed to them having to wait until they have the minimum number of people to participate,” he said.

Under Church Mate Plus, members have multiple options for life insurance, starting at $500,000 for a maximum coverage of $2 million. Edwards highlighted that this flexibility allows members to choose coverage based on their level of affordability. He then clarified that the responsibility for premium payments lies with the individual church members, offering the church a facilitative role in providing access and opportunities.

The coverage options under Church Mate Plus include life insurance, critical illness, personal accident, and a hospital indemnity plan. For life insurance, payouts go to beneficiaries, subject to a 12-month waiting period for medical questions. The hospital indemnity will provide coverage after 24 hours of confirmed confinement, up to a maximum of 10 days.

“Unlike the traditional hospitalisation major medical coverage where you would be required to show a diagnosis, there are all those different eligibility criteria for coverage; this plan is triggered by hospital confinement,” Edwards revealed.

Church Mate Plus also extends coverage to dependents, allowing individuals to cover dependent children up to the age of 26 under the same plan. The plan is available for people between the ages of 18 and 70 which is the maximum enrolment age. Sagicor aims to enrol 60 to 70 per cent of churches islandwide in Church Mate Plus and has future plans to include offering retirement and pension plans for ministers.

“You have ministers who would have been serving in various ministries for a number of years, and when they get to retirement and can no longer participate, the church may have a service of appreciation and give a gratuity that, at the end of the day, is not able to support them,” said Edwards.