JHTA Heads Calls for Insurance Coverage for People Living with HIV/AIDS

President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Wayne Cummings, has pointed to the need for insurance coverage for people living with HIV/AIDS.
He noted that the provision of life and medical insurance would help to improve the quality of life of persons living with the disease.
“We need to say to these insurance companies that offer people medical services, that it is something that ought to be funded. There is no way you can tell somebody that when they walk into the doctor’s office.they cannot get services off their medical card because they have HIV/AIDS. You are giving them a death sentence,” Mr. Cummings stated.
“If you are not giving them the opportunity to invest not only in themselves but also in the people they are leaving behind, then we are always going to be causing them to stay in the shadow. We must break the stigma or the hypocrisy of HIV/AIDS,” the JHTA head stressed as he addressed the opening of the Nurses Practitioners 30th anniversary conference at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort in Montego Bay on July 4.
Calling on the private and public sectors to take more seriously, issues relating to the support, funding and treatment of persons living with HIV/AIDS, Mr. Cummings said that the JHTA, this year, would be leading the fight in support of persons suffering from the disease.
The annual conference, which is being held under the theme: ‘Nurses Practitioners: impacting the community through quality health care,’ concludes today (July 6).