St. Lucians Can Join Up For US $120 A Year.
THE added burden of payment for medical air services by St Lucians has been drastically reduced with the opening of a new membership service here yesterday.
The Medical Air Services Association (MASA) is an emergency assistance company which has now added St. Lucia to its list of 17 Caribbean islands in which it operates.
MASA is a 50 year old company of U.S origin. It provides medical flights to and from destinations where members seek medical treatment that is not available to them locally.
With the main air hangar…the biggest in the Caribbean, based in St. Croix, the company currently operates with four fully equipped air ambulances including two of the largest and fastest in the Caribbean.
Transport Director of MASA, Dusty Cook told The VOICE: “What we’re trying to do is to provide services to our mass members and also to the local residents here and move them out. If they can’t be treated in St. Lucia, we’ll move them to wherever they need to go to including Puerto Rico, Miami, New York, wherever they need to be treated.”
The company’s Senior Vice President of International Marketing, Reginald Anderson explained that the membership fees are as follows: US$$120 for a single person per annum and US$240 for a family (consisting of mother, father and children under the age of 23) per annum.
Anderson also explained that services include transportation to and from treatment destinations, transportation of members in need of the service whilst they are in another country and the transportation of members remains to their home country should they pass away whilst in another country.
The average medical service flight available before the introduction of the new service was upward of $15,000.
The MASA service has the capacity to travel to both small and large islands.