A Pensioner’s cry to President Ali

Dec 03, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I read in the newspaper an article by Mr. Imtiaz Bacchus wrote that Colonel Gomes cannot be paid medical expenses occurred after the age of 60 because NIS has a law that states in the working period you can claim sickness benefit, but after attaining 60 years, if you are sick, they will not pay you, which is nonsense.

I need the President, the Health Minister, Mr. Jagdeo, and the other caring Ministers in the Government to change this stupid law.

About 6 weeks ago I took ill at my home in Port Mourant, this was about 12 midnight. I couldn’t breathe freely, and my chest hurt a lot, so my wife took me to the Anamaiyah Memorial Hospital at Belvedere, where I was given priority treatment. They told me I have pneumonia, and I will have to be admitted. They administered oxygen and different type of drips. I spent two days in the hospital, and was discharged on the third day. My expenses at the hospital amounted to two hundred and four thousand dollars ($204,000.00), which I sent to NIS with a breakdown of the expenses. NIS then wrote me they will not honour the expenses, because, they occurred after I had attained the age of 60. During my working years I registered with NIS as a diabetic. NIS is paying part of my treatment as a diabetic. After 60 years as a diabetic I have other complications, such as pneumonia, so I believe NIS is totally wrong.

Mr. President, I am 64 years of age, the only money I am getting is my NIS pension. I had to borrow money to pay the hospital bill when I was recently sick. Also, I paid to the NIS for 2008 contributions, which is past the maximum number of contributions. Someone needs to give me back the extra contributions I have paid. What I feel is that NIS is not helpful to pensioners. If they can rob you, they will do it. But some of us are educated and know the laws that govern NIS.

As Mr. Imtiaz Bacchus says, Mr. President you will be a Pensioner some day and hope you will not be facing what is happening to us today. I hope I have a favourable answer to my problem, because a lot of Pensioners are facing the same problem I have with NIS.

Respectfully yours,

Indranauth Balgobin

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