Haiti needs insurance coverage to escape the poverty pit, says AIC head

To escape its current state of chronic underdevelopment, disaster-prone Haiti needs a huge increase in insurance coverage, Alternative Insurance Company (AIC) CEO Olivier Barrau said in an opinion piece for Forbes magazine. "Less than 3% of the population has access to social security and less than 200,000 people out of a population of 10mn have access to health insurance. There are at most 300,000 people insured by any product in all of Haiti," Barrau said. The lack of insurance coverage compounds the effects of disasters and keeps the nation in a state of stagnant poverty. "Each time Haiti is hit by weather or social unrest, the cost of the shock is threefold: the loss of property and/or the loss of life itself; the negative impact on the economy; and the cost of rebuilding after the loss," the CEO said. "The victim also experiences the additional cost of productive time lost. Without insurance, the family, or nation, may not be able to recover at all," he added. Barrau believes a Haiti stabilized by proper insurance coverage would foster the type of private sector it needs to grow. "Haiti needs a vibrant private sector to address the poverty in our country not only defensively, as insurance does, but proactively too by creating high-value products and services, good jobs and more economic stability that will inevitably help the country accomplish the UN MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)," the CEO said.