WHY HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME MUST BE COMPULSORY IN KEBBI....DR AUGIE.
FROM : AYODELE AJOGE, BIRNIN-KEBBI..
The new National Health Insurance Act (NHIA), 2022, approved by President Muhammadu Buhari has made it mandatory for every citizens of the country to be enrolled, therefore citizens of Kebbi State must not be an excemption.
The Executive Secretary, Kebbi State Contributory Health Emagency Management Agency (KECHEMA), Dr. Jafar Muhammed Augie made this known at a two day training workshop organised by the Agency, sponsored by USAID and Intergrated Health Project (IHP) for some selected Journalists in the State.
Dr. Jafar explained that with the new development, States like Kebbi were mandated to set up their own Social Health Insurance Schemes inline with the new Act and to achieve Universal Health Control (UHC).
He pointed out that KECHEMA's target was to enrol two million, five hundred thousand people into Kebbi Contributory Health Scheme Agency in the next five years, as he commended the state government for enacting the law that established KECHEMA describing it as a means of ensuring affordable, accessible and quality health services to people of the state.
The KECHEMA boss noted that the scheme is in line with federal government policy of ensuring UHC with much emphasis on Women, Children under five and elderly in the society.
He further acknowledged with pride the contributions of Journalists in information dissemination, describing the media as one of the seven component of the health system.
Speaking earlier, the USAID IHP state Healthcare Financing Officer, Dr Aisha Aminu Senchi said the meeting was organized in realization of the fact that the media professionals are the major key championing most of the health related activities especially in the context of the laws and the health indices in the state.
Dr. Aisha also urged the participant to avail themselves with the opportunity to understand the concept and the skills on health financing for dissemination to the general public.
In his paper presentation, the USAID IHP State knowledge Management/ Communication Specialist, Faruk Nano Bello highlighted the contributions of IHP to include, Reductions in child maternal morbidity and mortality, Increase the capacity of Health systems whether public or private, supporting Public Health Care (PHC) and services for Reproductive Health, among other things.
Other things according to him are family planning, Maternal, new born, child health, Nutrition and Malaria.