One million to benefit from Oyo’s health insurance scheme

Acting Executive Secretary, Oyo State Health Insurance Agency (OYSHIA), Dr Sola Akande has said at least one million people will benefit from the state’s health insurance scheme even as he described health insurance as the only panacea to improving the nation’s poor health index.

Dr Akande spoke at the maiden symposium of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Oyo State branch in Ibadan, with the theme “OYSHIA and universal health coverage: Opportunities, Prospects and Challenges.”

Akande, who declared that several health initiatives and programmes like drug revolving scheme and Public Private Partnership initiatives were at different times proffered to curtail burdens of healthcare delivery, said access to needed health services, especially for the poor, can only be achieved through health insurance.

“All have not been able to resolve the problems in the health sector. Health insurance is the last bus stop. The other initiatives we have before were addressing some sections of the healthcare like drugs and infrastructure, but the health insurance scheme is addressing the people,” he declared.

Akande declared that OYSHIA was targeting one million people enrol for its health insurance in one year, adding that strategies are being put in place to ensure improved healthcare facilities in the state.

He said advocacy to different groups and communities were on to ensure the health insurance scheme which is to involve government health facilities and accredited private health facilities can take off.

Akande said that although there may be some challenges in ensuring everybody buys into the insurance scheme, all the flaws the National Health Insurance Scheme had been tackled in the state health scheme to ensure improvement in its coverage.

“It is now mandatory and gives leverage to reach to all people in the state. Everyone will have to get one kind of health plan or the other,” he said.

The acting executive secretary assured that the scheme when fully running will ensure more health workers can be employed; improved facilities in government hospitals reduce capital flight due to medical tourism as well as generate internally generated funds for the state.

Professor Mike Asuzu, a public health expert and chairman at the event stated that health insurance is indispensable as everybody needs health.

The don, who remarked that the world agenda, since 1978 is health for all, said it was the option to ensure that even the marginalised also has access to quality care.

Dr Olugbade Omotajo, the symposium’s planning committee chairman, said the meeting was to create awareness on the state’s health insurance among members of the association.

He said this became necessary because at the onset of the national health insurance scheme, the advocacy and sensitisation on the scheme left many people and groups out.