SANTO DOMINGO. - The Pension Funds already total more than US$2.08 billion (RD$73 billion) and the Subsidized Contributing Regime (mixed) of the Family Health Insurance is expected to begin by mid year, Social Security Council officials said yesterday.

Pensions superintendent Persia Alvarez said the Pension Funds of the more than two million affiliates total RD$73.2 billion, or 5.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it’s expected to reach 18 percent by 2016.

Social Security Council president Max Puig yesterday announced that the Contributing-Subsidized regime will be implemented this year, which he said will cover 54 percent of the population. “The intention is to begin to the mixed regime (Contributing-Subsidized). We expect to start with a pilot project.”

Puig, interviewed by the Corripio Communications Group, said there’s 91 million pesos for that purspose.