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Enugu state government has established a health insurance scheme to widen the scope of healthcare coverage to the generality of residents of the state.
The Executive Secretary of the State Agency for University Healthcare Coverage, Dr. Edith Okolo, disclosed this on Friday at a one-day stakeholders’ meeting in Enugu.
Okolo said that the essence of establishing the scheme was to ensure that everybody got access to quality healthcare at affordable price.
She encouraged workers, especially private workers, to adopt the contributory type of scheme in order to benefit from the scheme.
She said that monies contributed by them would go into their treatment when they take ill.
The executive secretary, however, added that children under five years and pregnant women would be treated free of charge under the scheme.
Also speaking, a principal manager in the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, Mr Smart Udomark, said that service providers under the scheme were mandated to dispense approved drugs and monitor the supply chain to avoid fake drugs.
Udomark said that while the Federal Government contributes some percentage for workers in formal sector, the agency was having some difficulty getting the private sector participation.
A participant at the meeting, Mr.Tobenna Agujiobi, appealed to federal and state governments to initiate programmes that would ensure full implementation of the scheme in the country.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was attended by medical and healthcare givers, town union leaders, market union leaders and media practitioners. (NAN)
