MINE YU OWN BUSINESS

Providing Insurance for Assurance

Robert Hayle going into his office. 

Robert Hale, Director at QuikCare Insurance Broker.

Wednesday,  September 7, 2005

No one knows when a major disaster is going to strike. Oftentimes when we need coverage the most that’s the time we have the least insurance protection.

Nobody knows this better than Robert Hale, Director at QuikCare Insurance Broker. Hailed from Jamaica, he moved to the Cayman Islands in 1998 and became the Director of QuikCare, a member of the First Financial Group of Companies. According to Mr Hale, one needs to insure their person and property even when they think they can’t afford to self-insure, as he believes people can’t afford not to.

He has been in the business long enough to know. “If you are going to pay for a coverage, you must make sure it is a good coverage. Read the fine print and make no assumptions,” he said referring to some people who often complain about paying and not receiving.

“This is a hard pill to swallow,” he added, “but as an insurer, we are seeing both sides of the coin.” He explained to The Jamaican in Cayman an incident where a man had an automobile accident and suffered personal injury that cost over $150,000 to remedy, which was all covered by QuikCare except for the usual first $500.

Another case he described involved a construction worker falling from a roof and sustained multiple fractures. The first phone call to his office by the construction company was to find out if he was adequately covered. Fortunate for him, he was and, so he could be airlifted to Miami where he received state-of-the-art treatment.

“If you don’t want your family to end up as an indebted coverage make sure you have a good coverage,” he warned. “None of us knows what is in store for us. If there is one thing that we owe ourselves, it is to make sure our person and property are fully covered.”

A rebate is now included in his health package for groups that have made no claims for the year. “This is not a cash rebate but rather in the form of gift certificates,” he said.

Though QuikCare might only be a go-between for the customer and the Insurance Companies, it has three-health plans of its own, which fall in the category of Managed Health Plan.

According to Mr Hale, this coverage provides the consumer with quality service for less.

“We recognize the difficulties in affordable insurance coverage,” he said. “So we offset that by giving a flexible payment plan.”

He acknowledged there are some abuses in the system by the consumer, which according to him is the cause of increased premiums and he thinks people are recognizing that if they abuse the system, the costs will be higher.

Heath Insurance is not the only coverage provided by QuikCare. Property, public and professional liability, workers compensation and life insurance are also a part of its portfolio.

“I see my client as more than just a policy,” Mr Hale said.

By way of explanation he said that in the wake of Hurricane Ivan he went to his clients.

“We processed 95 percent of our claims by the end of January,” he told The Jamaican In Cayman and he said he took the claim forms to the clients instead of waiting for them to come to him.

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