By Edu Abade
The Rivers State Contributory Health Protection Programme (RIVCHPP) has continued to seek the sponsorship of chairmen of the 23 local government areas of the state to enroll more persons into the health insurance scheme to increase the number of people targeted to benefit from the agency’s healthcare coverage.
Acting Executive Secretary of RIVCHPP, Dr. Vetty Agala, who made the appeal in Okrika Mainland, headquarters of the council, when she and her team visited the Chairman of Okrika Local Government Area, disclosed that the Federal Government, through the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) directed Rivers State to enrol only a total of 68,874 lives to benefit from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
Agala, however, informed that Amaopusenibo Siminialayi Fubara graciously increased the number of beneficiaries to 100,000 from Federal Government’s benchmark of 68,874 persons, stressing that the persons to benefit from the BHCPF are mainly those categorised as vulnerable people like pregnant women, children of less than five years, people living with disabilities, and some HIV patients.
She also disclosed that BHCPF is being paid for from a percentage of the consolidated revenue fund of the federal government to cater for the number of persons the NHIA has directed the agency in the state to enroll.
She maintained that the fund cannot cater to the health needs of all the vulnerable people in the state, who will really find it hard to pay for their health care services and needed medical bills, which prompted calls for more resources to be deployed to a pool so that more people would become beneficiaries of the scheme.
The RIVCHPP boss then called upon authorities of the different local government councils, religious bodies, social groups, philanthropists and well-meaning individuals to pool resources and enroll some more lives in their communities into the health insurance scheme they can carry in order to give such persons the opportunity to have access to health care without bearing the cost of medication and treatment, saying that healthcare is one of the best gifts that can be given to humanity.
In his remarks, Chairman of Okrika Council, Sir Achese Igwe, who commended Dr. Agala and her team for their efforts towards ensuring that the universal health coverage of the state greatly improves and applauded Governor Fubara for making the health insurance scheme functional in the state, saying that the Governor means well for Rivers people.
The council boss restated that investments in the health and education of the people would bring about unparalleled economic freedom and growth, pledging that the council will come up with modalities on how to bring more persons from the area on board the programme.
Igwe, however, decried the moribund and dilapidated state of most health facilities in the area, arguing that there can be no truly impactful health insurance scheme without functional health facilities.
He therefore, urged the RIVCHPP to liaise with the Primary Health Care Management Board and other relevant authorities and stakeholders to see how the primary health centres and facilities can be revitalised, rehabilitated, properly staffed and equipped to make them truly functional and working, so that the health insurance initiative could be beneficial to the people, especially in the rural communities.
