In a bid to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030, the Ogun State Government says more effort will be intensified on its Health Insurance Scheme for the vulnerable, informal and formal sectors.
The Executive Secretary, Ogun State Health Insurance Agency (OGSHIA), Dr. Afolabi Dosumu made this known in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, during an engagement with the management and staffers of the Ministry of Information and Strategy.
Dr. Dosumu said the State and Federal Governments had proactively launched and captured the informal sector and vulnerable under the Basic Healthcare Provisions Fund (BHCPF), saying the formal sector insurance scheme for public servants and the private sector would come up soon.
He disclosed that the government had engaged the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Ogun State Chapter, and other affiliate unions to ensure that their members key into the scheme.
The Executive Secretary stated that once the formal sector insurance scheme is launched, the monthly premium for each Civil Servant would be discounted from N1,000 to N850, adding that this would be applicable to a group of not less than 100 individuals registering at once.
“Health insurance is now mandatory in Nigeria just like our car insurance. It is just a matter of time before everyone will be expected to have health insurance. Our State had been proactive over the years and OGSHIA is in full gear. Once we launch our formal sector health insurance scheme, our trajectory towards Universal Health Coverage will be a lot better”.
He explained that Universal Health Coverage is about equity, quality, and financial risk protection, noting that “as a society, no one should pay out-of-pocket to access healthcare or be left behind due to zero capacity to pay, hence the need to onboard all Civil Servants”.
Dosumu, who assured the sustainability of the scheme, said his Agency attends to feedback through its hotlines with the goal of improving its operations, pointing out that task force would be deployed to monitor health facilities and services rendered to the people from time to time.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Mr. Waheed Adesina, commended the efforts of OGSHIA on the enlightenment about health insurance, describing the interaction with Information Officers as an avenue to disseminate correct information about the scheme to residents of the State.
