SAGICOR Life Jamaica has welcomed the move by the Government to offer coverage to persons affected by the autoimmune disease, lupus, through the National Health Fund (NHF).

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, during his contribution to the 2019/20 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives, announced that commencing April 30, lupus will be added to the list of illnesses for which the NHF subsidises the cost of medication, improving access to healthcare for lupus patients.

Carol Lawrence, vice-president of group insurance at Sagicor, said this step will be significant for lupus patients, particularly those already covered by Sagicor Life who will now realise even greater savings by coordinating the benefits received by NHF with their current policy.

“Sagicor Life coordinates benefits on a range of illnesses covered by the NHF, so lupus patients will see their health insurance benefit extending farther when they use both their NHF and Sagicor health cards to pay for treatment or medication, with this new initiative by the Government. This means easing the burden of finding more out-of-pocket expenses to cover their lupus medication,” Lawrence explained.

Coordination of benefits applies when a person who is covered under two or more health insurance schemes can submit claims under more than one plans allowing a second or third plan to cover the costs not covered under the primary plan.

Earlier this year, Sagicor, through its annual Sigma Corporate Run raised over $52.4 million for three beneficiaries, including the Lupus Foundation of Jamaica. Proceeds from the run will go towards assisting the foundation with its educational programmes to raise awareness about the disease as well as to procure an equipment that is able to diagnose if a person has lupus.