The state’s commercial fishers have until mid-June to sign up for a health insurance program targeting a traditionally under-insured population.
Enrollment in the Fishing Partnership Health Plan – a private program leveraged by public funds – began earlier this month. Besides Rhode Island the plan is operating in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and under development in Maine.
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“Now that it is in place, this program will enable families and individuals to save hundreds of dollars on their annual premiums,” said U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-Rhode Island, who is among those supporting the plan. “It will also enable those without health insurance to obtain access to a more cost-efficient plan.”
Kennedy’s office estimated that 70 percent of Rhode Island’s approximately 5,000 commercial fishers have no insurance or are inadequately insured.
The U.S. Department of Commerce through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has contributed $2.9 million to the plan. It was jump started last December in Massachusetts and last July in New Hampshire using $1.9 million worth of 1996 disaster relief money for fishers suffering the effects of declining fish stocks.
Caritas Christi, the not-for-profit health system of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, oversees the trust into which those funds are funneled. Tufts Health Plan, which won the bid for the program in January 1997, will administer the program in all four states.
In Massachusetts and New Hampshire the plan covers 650 subscribers and 1,300 individuals, according to Peter Gori of the Boston public relations firm of McDermott/O’Neill & Associates, consultants to Caritas Christi.
The Rhode Island plan includes the fishing village of Stonington, Conn. Rates will be finalized on April 26, Gori said.
“The federal government working with the private sector has reasserted its commitment to the historic commercial fishing industry,” Kennedy said. “For generations, fishermen and their families have enriched our lives and helped our local economies grow. This is our chance to give something back by easing the financial burden many fishermen face because of declining fish stocks.”
Applications for the FPHP will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. The deadline to apply is June 18. The plan becomes effective July 1.
For more information call Tufts Health Plan at 1-800-843-1008 or the Fishermen’s Partnership Outreach Center at 1-888-282-8816.
