On the weekend there was a notice sent around the Palm Meadows online forum of the option for residents to provide Medical Insurance for free to their staff under a new Government scheme. For many of the staff, they do not have the necessary funds or paperwork to apply for medical insurance here in India. Along with this, comes the reality that most of these people are living in conditions that result in them needing some sort of serious medical treatment over the years, if not for themselves then for their children.
In order to be granted Medical Insurance, they really need to have confirmation of employment and identification, and due to the fact that all salary payments are done in cash, that is nearly impossible. So, the opportunity for Lydia and Anthony to have hospital cover for themselves and immediate family members of up to 30,000 rupees, was huge. Both have 2 young boys each who have been born and raised in poverty conditions, and one has ongoing medical issues that are often going un-addressed. The other issue is that if either Lydia or Anthony gets sick, they cannot afford to not work for the family, so medical insurance could become the difference between eating for the month or not.
In order for me to arrange this insurance for them, they needed to provide certain details and I had to complete both hard and soft copies of the documents for review by the Palm Meadows Association, prior to submission to the relevant government department. Wading through bits of identification for these guys was incredibly frustrating. All the details on the forms were different - different addresses, different names, different birthdates - unbelievable !! Lydia's real name is 'apparently' Lakshmi and Anthony's is Clemont !! How would I know that, and when some documents are different and with the language barrier, it meant confusion all around. Lydia tells me she is 32 but her birth year on two of the documents said 1973 - I sadly had to inform her that she is now 40. Poor thing she seemed shocked. Also, her birthdate on these papers were different to the date she told me was her birthday - by 2.5 months !!
I also had to ask Anthony his fathers name. His response was 'Madam, he is dead, he died last week.' I know Anthony, I only need his name....' It is always eventful when I do these things. Another odd thing was their boys ages, they were all different on documents. I expected these to be more reliable as they are similar ages to our boys, but no. Record keeping seems to be 'optional' in India.
In order to be granted Medical Insurance, they really need to have confirmation of employment and identification, and due to the fact that all salary payments are done in cash, that is nearly impossible. So, the opportunity for Lydia and Anthony to have hospital cover for themselves and immediate family members of up to 30,000 rupees, was huge. Both have 2 young boys each who have been born and raised in poverty conditions, and one has ongoing medical issues that are often going un-addressed. The other issue is that if either Lydia or Anthony gets sick, they cannot afford to not work for the family, so medical insurance could become the difference between eating for the month or not.
In order for me to arrange this insurance for them, they needed to provide certain details and I had to complete both hard and soft copies of the documents for review by the Palm Meadows Association, prior to submission to the relevant government department. Wading through bits of identification for these guys was incredibly frustrating. All the details on the forms were different - different addresses, different names, different birthdates - unbelievable !! Lydia's real name is 'apparently' Lakshmi and Anthony's is Clemont !! How would I know that, and when some documents are different and with the language barrier, it meant confusion all around. Lydia tells me she is 32 but her birth year on two of the documents said 1973 - I sadly had to inform her that she is now 40. Poor thing she seemed shocked. Also, her birthdate on these papers were different to the date she told me was her birthday - by 2.5 months !!
I also had to ask Anthony his fathers name. His response was 'Madam, he is dead, he died last week.' I know Anthony, I only need his name....' It is always eventful when I do these things. Another odd thing was their boys ages, they were all different on documents. I expected these to be more reliable as they are similar ages to our boys, but no. Record keeping seems to be 'optional' in India.
Anyway, I waded through the details and finally photocopied and arranged the documents for them both. I then noticed that one of the requirements was to have the individual's name written somewhere on the form in Kannada. Unfortunately, transcript is not my strong point ....... so we headed out to find someone in the street that could not only read but write in Kannada too. Luckily we found another driver completing his own forms and he helped us out.
With the forms all completed, I was then asked a thousand questions in regards to when they could use it - in India, it will be a while.
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