Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHCMA) and a Civil Society Coalition known as Bauchi State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (BaSAM), are collaborating to carry out a well-coordinated advocacy and campaign to key state and non-actors on issues of health insurance.
The collaboration is towards increasing enrollment into the Health Contributory Scheme aimed at reducing out-of-pocket expenses and making quality healthcare accessible to citizens of Bauchi State.
The objective of the proposed advocacy and campaign is to galvanise action towards the enrollment of more vulnerable target groups into the scheme and trigger the commencement of the formal sector implementation of the scheme in Bauchi State.
The resolve by BASHCMA to collaborate with BaSAM came in the aftermath of a visit by BaSAM to the Agency on Wednesday, 30th August 2023.
In his remarks, the Team Lead of BaSAM during the visit, Hussaini Ahmed said that they were in BASHCMA to present the new Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Scorecard developed by the BaSAM, with support from USAID IHP that was just disseminated to key stakeholders in the health sector of Bauchi State.
Hussaini Ahmed further disclosed that the scorecard has highlighted the enrollment of citizens of the State into the scheme as slow and then expressed the readiness of BaSAM to support the agency in advocating for the Government to create the enabling environment for improved enrollment of citizens into the health contributory scheme.
The Team Lead also said that the Coalition would further carry out their evidence-based advocacy to other stakeholders like the state legislators, donor partners, influential members of society etc.
He also said that such advocacies may ginger targeted audiences into buying healthcare services for the vulnerable members of society through BASHCMA.
While responding, the Executive Secretary of BASHCMA, Dr. Mansur Mustapha Dada thanked BaSAM for the visit and commended their effort in producing the UHC scorecard which he described as a handy document for monitoring milestone in the implementation of the health contributory scheme in the state.
Mansur Dada said that with over 60 per cent of the state population living below the poverty line, the need to enrol that segment of the population into the scheme should be a priority for all stakeholders both within and outside Government circles.
He then said that BaSAM could play a significant role in mobilizing the State, through advocacy, to fast-track deductions and remittances of funds from the formal sector that will mainstream government workers and their families into the health contributory scheme of the State.
The ES further suggested to BaSAM to also consider carrying out advocacies to elected politicians, corporate organisations and the diaspora communities with a view to having such targeted individuals and organizations buying healthcare services for the vulnerable members of their respective communities.
According to him, the current amount of money being paid across all States by the Federal Government under the Basic Healthcare Provision Funds (BHCPF) is grossly inadequate to cater for the increasing number of vulnerable groups, not only in Bauchi State alone but across the entire country.
He said that there is a need for influential personalities, philanthropists, elected politicians, corporate bodies, donor partners, diaspora communities etc., to complement government efforts towards attaining UHC by assisting in enrolling citizens into health contributory schemes.
Mansur Dada said that the immediate challenge of the Agency at the moment is the inability of the State Government to implement the deduction of state workers’ 1 per cent salary and remittance of the same to officially kickstart the informal sector implementation of the scheme.
Highlights of the visit were the official presentation of the BaSAM-developed UHC scorecard that covered the period between January and June 2023.
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