Last spring, the Health Insurance Commission promised to cover health premiums for small businesses that have had to furlough employees last spring due to the lockdown. No payments, however, ever arrived to health insurance companies. Insurance policies have consequently been frozen even as employees actively seek healthcare.
The benefit scheme implemented by the Health Insurance Commission was supposed to ensure payment of employers’ health premiums for workers who had been temporarily laid off. In reality, however, no insurance companies who agreed to participate in the scheme ever received any premiums from the government.
The government’s failure to follow through on its own benefits scheme has thrown employers and their staff into a panic.
Business owners already pressured by lay-offs and reductions in hours have learned their workers’ insurance policies have been frozen, despite their participation in the Premium Payment Assistance Programme (PPAP). Employers who relied on the government to pay the premiums have found themselves unexpectedly in breach of the law.
Last May, Health Minister Dwayne Seymour introduced the PPAP scheme at a COVID briefing, explaining that small business owners could apply for help to cover their health insurance premiums. According to the Health Minister, any small business who had furloughed staff until after the lockdown could seek government assistance. Weeks after employers applied and were approved for PPAP, however, hundreds of people are learning that their policies have been frozen.
Employers believed the government would pay insurance premiums for the months of April, May, and June, as promised, but when employees sought healthcare, they found their insurance no longer applied. Families and individuals around the Cayman Islands sought care only to learn that their health insurance had been suspended.
Reports from different insurance companies revealed that no payments had been received from neither employers nor the government since March of 2020.
Employers are bound by law to keep up insurance payments for their workers. The news of the government’s failure to follow through on the benefits scheme is a reminder to small business owners of the post-lockdown state of the economy as everyone struggles to regain their financial footing.
As COVID-related restrictions continue to be observed, many employers are searching for answers to this current dilemma, but none appear to be available.
