Alaskan fishermen are facing lot of problems regarding insurance. It is said that fishermen saw Blue Cross Blue Shield rates rise sharply this year. The federal government has already taken care of fishermen’s health care in some form, through a system of marine hospitals and contract physicians to fishing communities. But that programme ended in 1981. After that several fishermen’s associations have tried to put together group plans. But lacking large numbers or people with steady jobs, the plans never worked out.
J.J. Bartlett, CEO of a group fund that covers Massachusetts fishermen, informed that the fishermen are just the most difficult people in the country to cover. He added that they have every insurance risk imaginable. According to him fishing families were three to four times more likely to be unemployed than the average citizen. That’s because fishing is dangerous. The income is seasonal and unpredictable. Crew members float from boat to boat. On top of that, rising fuel and other expenses tend to squeeze health care out of people’s budgets, opined Bartlett.
In this way the Fishing Partnership Health Plan was born, which now insures more than 2,000 Massachusetts fishermen on a sliding scale, with preventive care and full drug benefits. Since its inception the proportion of uninsured fishermen in Massachusetts has went from 43 percent to 13 percent, said Bartlett. It is informed that fishermen’s groups, including the United Fishermen of Alaska, are trying to get Congress to fund $50 million in research on starting FPHP-like programs nationwide.
