From Suleiman Abubakar Lafia
The Executive Secretary Nasarawa State Health Insurance Agency (NASHIA) has revealed that over 237,000 individuals had already enrolled in the scheme and were benefiting from quality, out-of-pocket healthcare services.
Which were registered under different packages like public sector, informal sector, vulnerable, and student categories, among others.
He made the declaration during this year Universal Health Coverage Day' program and coincided with 2 years establishment of the Agency in Lafia.
Represented at the event by Pharm. Maikudu Kaki, Director of Medical Services, Standard, and Quality Control at the agency frowned at unproductive medical facilities who are not leaving up to expectations.
" We are going revoke any facility failed to provide efficient medical care to our people. He threatened.
" We in NASHIA we are target of registering 500,000 persons into the scheme by 2027.
He stated that any facility found wanting would be delisted, and their enrollees transferred to the nearest facility to ensure continued access to healthcare.
The Executive Secretary appealed to healthcare providers to ensure professionalism in their conduct and offer enrollees the desired services to bolster public confidence in the scheme.
According to him" We have so far received numerous complaints from enrollees about subpar services provided by certain medical facilities and that steps were being taken to address these issues.
Additionally, he advised enrollees to switch to another service provider if they were unsatisfied, as it was within their rights to do so.
He added, "The law mandating enrollment for all state civil servants will be enforced to achieve universal health coverage."
"To achieve this, we must explore all avenues to create robust awareness and simplify registration for everybody."
He emphasized the creation of a platform allowing people to enroll from the comfort of their homes and offices, provided they have android phones and internet access.
During his presentation, Dr. Simon Istifanus, Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics at the agency, urged stakeholders to collectively support the agency to enhance healthcare services delivery in the state.
He stressed the necessity of expanding and improving healthcare services at Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) to bring these services closer to the people.
Dr. Istifanus emphasized that addressing more than 70% of health challenges faced by the people relied on PHCs performing optimally.
"Most health challenges faced by the people should ideally be handled by PHCs. Suboptimal performance in primary facilities leads to cases being escalated to secondary and tertiary health facilities," he added.
