Health
Insurance
THE Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KADCHMA) says a total of 298,022 persons accessed various health services under its health insurance scheme from January till date.
Mr Suleiman Mustapha, the Head of Administration and Finance of the authority made this known at a one-day meeting in Kaduna on Monday to review progress, challenges and develop an action plan to scale up enrolment into the health scheme.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was organised by the Kaduna Maternal Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM), in collaboration with Ward Development Committee and KADCHMA.
It was supported by the United Kingdom-Funder governance programme, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), through its Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
According to Mustapha, the figure shows a significant improvement in the number of persons accessing health services when compared to the 379,450 persons that accessed the services in the whole of 2021.
He explained that the 298,022 persons who accessed the services were out of the 508,559 total people currently enrolled in the scheme.
He said a total of 376,668 were enrolled under the formal sector, 6,296 under the informal sector, 79,329 under the vulnerable population and 741 under the Tertiary Students Health Insurance programme.
He added that 45,529 poor and vulnerable people were enrolled under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
According to him, KADCHMA, Third Party Administrators and other partners are working hard to ensure that more persons are captured into the scheme under the informal sector.
Earlier, PERL’s State Lead Facilitator, Mr Adejor Abel, said that the meeting was organised to review achievements recorded from January 2021 till date, identify challenges and develop an action plan to address them.
Abel said that PERL would continue to provide adequate support to ensure that more persons were enrolled under the informal sector to access basic healthcare.
Mr Isa Gidado, the Secretary, KADMAM, said that the objective of the meeting was to review progress on beneficiaries’ enrolment and service uptake, and strengthen collaboration with relevant partners.
Gidado added that the meeting was also to discuss strategies to enroll more women and other excluded groups into the health scheme to reduce out of pocket expenditure
Mr Mustapha Jumare, Co-Chair, KADMAM, stressed the need to increase enrolment of the informal sector to reduce out of pocket expenditure on healthcare services.
Jumare said that as an accountability mechanism, KADMAM would continue to advocate to the government to ensure that the quality services were being provided in accredited facilities across the state.
He said that the meeting provided an opportunity to develop strategy to improve the enrolment into the scheme.
“We will continue to work both with KADCHMA to sensitise and mobilise citizens to register with the scheme to reduce out of pocket expenditure,” he said.
Mr Muazu Habibu, State Team Lead, Layifa, an FCDO-funded health programme, also pledged continued support to KADCHMA to improve enrolment and quality of service delivery.
Habibu said that Lafiya had concluded plans to support KADCHMA to develop a 10-year strategic plan, and domestication of the National Health Insurance Authority framework currently being developed. (NAN)
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Tags: Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Isa Gidado Muazu Habibu Mustapha Jumare Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn (PERL) Suleiman Mustapha
