‘Affordable…’ Kwara begins enrolment of its 3.2m residents for subsidized healthcare

Kwara state government has begun the enrolment of 3.2m residents across the 193 wards in the 16 local government areas of the state,for its subsidised health care system .

The Executive Secretary of Kwara state Health Insurance Agency Dr Olubunmi Jetawo-Winter who said this at a press conference in Ilorin yesterday said already,the agency has so far captured 100,000 people .

She also said that health workers were being trained for the project, aimed at providing affordable, accessible and quality health care for people of the state

She said,”So far, we are in the third week of the 12 weeks of the registration exercise and we have already captured over 100,000 beneficiaries in the registration data. We are hoping that by week 12, which is early next year, we should have captured a good number of the Kwara residents.

“The benefit package ranges from simple ailments like cold, malaria and it goes on to secondary services like surgeries, childbirth, antenatal etc. “As a result of the launch, we have indigent who never had access to healthcare going through surgeries, we have had a couple of childbirths under the scheme.

All these were 100 per cent subsidized for the beneficiaries. “For the purpose of the health insurance, we have divided the population into three segments. Segment one involves the indigent people and those people are 100 per cent subsidized by the state government through the equity fund that is derived from the one per cent consolidated revenue fund that comes from the state once a year.

“The second segment of the population is the informal sector. The premium of the people in this category has been put at N6,000 per person per year. The premiums are not arbitrary figures.

They were scientifically determined putting all our health risks into a basket and determining the cost of providing such healthcare per year. “The third segment is the formal sector. This sector is actually divided into two parts, namely public and private sectors. The premium is N9,000 per annum per year”.

Dr. Olubunmi Jetawo-Winter, further said that the project would ensure each healthcare facility in all the 193 wards in the state that is effective and functional for the project implementation.

The agency boss, who said that 200 enumerators, 32 supervisors and two separate companies had been engaged to oversee the ongoing registration of beneficiaries, added that 59 healthcare facilities, out of 200 already inspected, had been accredited for the programme. She stressed, “Its good that Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is launching this highly subsidized healthcare scheme at a time healthcare is almost affordable.

Targeting a good health for all residents is from a good heart of his Excellency because a sound health gives one access to do every other thing in life Without a sound any being is as good as dead”