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Saraki challenges FG on community health insurance scheme
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Federal Government has been challenged to fund community health insurance in the country to boost access to medicare for rural dwellers who account for about 70 percent of the nation’s population.
Delivering a speech to declare open the conference on community health insurance scheme facilitated by Hygia Community Health Plan in Abuja, yesterday, Bukola Saraki, governor of Kwara State, said the investment would increase the nation’s capacity to provide adequate health for the less privileged.
He noted that if government is sincere to invest “a fraction of what is spent across the country on mortar and bricks in funding initiatives like this (community health insurance), we would have become more efficient in delivering health care service to our people.
But if we say up to 70 percent of our people reside in the rural areas, it is only logical that we give priority to those things that will have the higher impact on the highest number of our people.”
“As far as healthcare delivery is concerned, I have no doubt in my mind that this is the way to go. It has worked in Kwara State (Shonga initiative), and I believe with careful planning, it can work elsewhere,” Saraki said.
Though in the Constitution healthcare is on the concurrent list, he lamented that “even a casual observer would note that the intervention by government over the years in the health sector has been largely characterised by contradictions, duplications and policy reversals at the three levels of government and among them.”
The governor confessed that they have also made the same mistake by approaching “healthcare delivery intervention through huge investments in bricks and mortar. While this is good for the TV cameras, it often overlooks the key issue of content and performance, which is what really differentiate the hospital from any other building.”
He stressed that all efforts at achieving economic growth and reducing poverty in the country would be meaningless “unless we mainstream an efficient, accessible and affordable healthcare delivery system as a basis for all other development planning.”
The governor who was excited over the giant stride achieved with the Shonga initiative said “what happened in Shonga, the dramatic turn-around in the fortune of the hitherto moribund health centre, the overwhelming subscriptions and patronage by the local community, and growing demand by the people for us to take this to other parts of our state, is not so much a miracle to me, but eye opener; and an important lesson in public policy governance.”
While appealing for more collaborative efforts between government and donor agencies Saraki said “if donor agencies are able to pool resources and are able to fund community health insurance policy in a particular state, they would be achieving a higher impact in combating these diseases because they would have increased the capacity of the supplying health facilities to handle a wide range of cases and would also have increased access through insurance.”
The concept of community health insurance for Africa was midwifed in 2006 by the government of the Netherlands, under the initiative of Pharm Access of Dutch health insurance fund, and with the support of their local partner, Hygeia Group, Kwara State became the first state in Africa to welcome the initiative.
Speaking earlier at the ceremony, Ariel van der Weil, the Netherlands ambassador to Nigeria said his government in 2006 committed 100 miilion euros for five years to support the community health insurance scheme in Africa.
He disclosed that for the Nigeria programme, “25 million euros or $37.5 million was made available for the five years pilot phase by my government on a grant basis.”
The envoy said at the launch of the programme in 2007, “the Nigerian government decided to match the Dutch commitment, to enable the HIF to spread the initiative over a wider number of region and zones in the country.”
Delivering a speech to declare open the conference on community health insurance scheme facilitated by Hygia Community Health Plan in Abuja, yesterday, Bukola Saraki, governor of Kwara State, said the investment would increase the nation’s capacity to provide adequate health for the less privileged.
He noted that if government is sincere to invest “a fraction of what is spent across the country on mortar and bricks in funding initiatives like this (community health insurance), we would have become more efficient in delivering health care service to our people.
But if we say up to 70 percent of our people reside in the rural areas, it is only logical that we give priority to those things that will have the higher impact on the highest number of our people.”
“As far as healthcare delivery is concerned, I have no doubt in my mind that this is the way to go. It has worked in Kwara State (Shonga initiative), and I believe with careful planning, it can work elsewhere,” Saraki said.
Though in the Constitution healthcare is on the concurrent list, he lamented that “even a casual observer would note that the intervention by government over the years in the health sector has been largely characterised by contradictions, duplications and policy reversals at the three levels of government and among them.”
The governor confessed that they have also made the same mistake by approaching “healthcare delivery intervention through huge investments in bricks and mortar. While this is good for the TV cameras, it often overlooks the key issue of content and performance, which is what really differentiate the hospital from any other building.”
He stressed that all efforts at achieving economic growth and reducing poverty in the country would be meaningless “unless we mainstream an efficient, accessible and affordable healthcare delivery system as a basis for all other development planning.”
The governor who was excited over the giant stride achieved with the Shonga initiative said “what happened in Shonga, the dramatic turn-around in the fortune of the hitherto moribund health centre, the overwhelming subscriptions and patronage by the local community, and growing demand by the people for us to take this to other parts of our state, is not so much a miracle to me, but eye opener; and an important lesson in public policy governance.”
While appealing for more collaborative efforts between government and donor agencies Saraki said “if donor agencies are able to pool resources and are able to fund community health insurance policy in a particular state, they would be achieving a higher impact in combating these diseases because they would have increased the capacity of the supplying health facilities to handle a wide range of cases and would also have increased access through insurance.”
The concept of community health insurance for Africa was midwifed in 2006 by the government of the Netherlands, under the initiative of Pharm Access of Dutch health insurance fund, and with the support of their local partner, Hygeia Group, Kwara State became the first state in Africa to welcome the initiative.
Speaking earlier at the ceremony, Ariel van der Weil, the Netherlands ambassador to Nigeria said his government in 2006 committed 100 miilion euros for five years to support the community health insurance scheme in Africa.
He disclosed that for the Nigeria programme, “25 million euros or $37.5 million was made available for the five years pilot phase by my government on a grant basis.”
The envoy said at the launch of the programme in 2007, “the Nigerian government decided to match the Dutch commitment, to enable the HIF to spread the initiative over a wider number of region and zones in the country.”
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