By Ude Ogbonnaya Israel
Stakeholders in health sector have called for increase in health insurance to achieve rights of persons to health in order to meet the Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria at large and Bauchi State in particular.
This was the main concern of presenters at a townhall meeting organised on Monday in Bauchi by journalists for Public Health and Development Initiatve (J4PD) in Patnership with Centre for social justice and support from United States Agency International Development (USAID).
In his presentation, the Assistant General Manager National Health Insurance Authority, Shamsudden Yahaya said the Health insurance will protect families from financial and huge medical bills.
“The insurance will also ensure equitable distribution of healthcare cost among different income groups ” he added.
On his part, the Director of Programmes, Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHMA) Dr. Haruna D. Umar emphasised the need to Increase Health Coverage noting that stastistics still indicate that there are so many that are missing out.
“Over 930 million people spent at least 10% of their household income on healthcare; about 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty each year because of out of pocket spending on health”, he said.
Also presenting, Garba Bello from Health Maintenance Organization encouraged Bauchi residents to explore both the informal and formal enrolment platforms as it is laden with lots of benefits and opportunities.
In his address, the Manager, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Martins Eke said they are glad that Bauchi have commenced enrolment into the Health Contributory scheme but desires a significant increase on the status to reach wider Population especially the vulnerable.
Highlighting the benefits of the enrolment, Martins Eke said,
“It will reduce the financial burden on Bauchi in healthcare delivery system, it can bridge ị equality gap, ensure more tranasparency and accountability on leaders, promote equity fir Health financing in the state as well as create healthier and more productive society “.
Earlier in her welcome address, the State Coordinator of Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiatve (J4PD) Elizerbeth Kar said the essence of the gathering is to hear from the people on how to Increase uptake in the Health insurance and reduce out of pocket expenses for people to have access to health services.
Highlight of the gathering was questions and answers where many concerns of the participants drawn from Religious, traditional, media, Civil and Community bodies were addressed.
