The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, has said that the adoption of the Community Based Health Insurance Scheme will lead to the improvement of facilities at the Primary Health Care Centers in the state.
Idris disclosed this on Wednesday at a meeting with health delegates from Akwa Ibom State and Gombe State.
The delegates were in Lagos State on a study tour to assess the success of the state government’s Community Based Health Insurance Scheme.
Idris also reiterated the state government’s commitment to the provision of qualitative health care delivery to the people within the limit of resources available to it.
He pointed out that government alone cannot fund healthcare, hence the need for citizens and the well-endowed to augment such effort by buying into the health insurance scheme.
He said: “Government can only spend the resources available to it to address competing challenges and the provision of qualitative healthcare services is just one of the major challenges confronting government.
“This is why health insurance is very important in solving the problem of healthcare financing.”
Idris disclosed that the community based health insurance scheme does not necessarily leave the bills of healthcare financing solely on the people since government not only augments the premium paid by the people, but also provides direction for the survival of the scheme.
He explained: “When we were preparing for the scheme, we got people to study and cost the types of health services we would provide and the amount the community would be willing to pay.
“We agreed we will start with N1,200 for a family, N300 for any addition in a family and N600 for an individual as the scheme was new and we wanted people to embrace it.
“I must tell you that with the N1,200 being paid by a family of six, government is paying an extra for each person to support and sustain the scheme.”
Idris expressed happiness that the Ikosi-Isheri and Ibeju-Lekki mutual health insurance plan continues to offer pre-paid primary health care services on a 24 hours basis to enrolled members of their communities.
He said: “We are using the two community based health insurance schemes as a study, so that we would know what we are doing wrong and what we are doing right in ensuring that people own up to healthcare financing through insurance.
“The feedback we have gotten from the scheme shows that though there are challenges but people of the community have also shown positive response to the idea of the scheme and this has made government to give us the go-ahead to scale up.”
The commissioner noted that government is in dialogue with other interested local governments and private groups that have shown interest in the scheme, adding that it has already been introduced in Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Shomolu.