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A group photograph of the participants
By Akanji Olowolodu, Bauchi
No fewer than 80,000 vulnerable persons in Bauchi state have been enrolled under the Federal Government’s Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in Bauchi state.
The disclosure was made by the Executive Secretary of Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHCMA) during a one day media engagement organized by Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiative (J4PD) in collaboration with the USAID-IHP Integrated Health Program (IHP), held at the Hazibal Event hall in Bauchi on Tuesday.
According to him, the Bauchi state Health Contributory Management Agency is implementing the program in all the 323 Primary Health facilities across the state, 26 General Hospitals and Specialist Hospital, Bauchi.
According to him, “40 percent of the registered vulnerable enrollees are currently accessing medical services in all the health facilities, by June 2023, the programme will clock two years since inception.”
He also said that, “The informal sector programme targets those that are neither vulnerable or working in organized setting and it accounts for more than 75 percent of the population, It can be individual or family plan.”
He further said that under the formal sector, an individual plan is N12,000 while a family plan is N10,000 each with maximum of 7 family members per year, adding that the programme which commenced in the month of August 2022, has now reached 174 enrollees.
Speaking earlier on the overview of USAID-IHP 2022 outlook Health financing support to Bauchi state, the State IHP Health Financing Advisor, Pharmacist Khalid Kasimu, said that the goal of IHP is to contribute to the State Level reduction in child and maternal morbidity and mortality and increase the capacity of health system to sustainably support quality PHC services.
He also said that it was important for Journalists to create more awareness on the benefits of Health insurance and how to access it, pointing that many people are still spending out of their pockets due to ignorance .
In her remarks, the Coordinator of Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiative (J4PD), Ms Elizabeth Nange Kah urged Journalist to mobilize households to enroll in the Bauchi State Insurance Scheme so that whenever they are sick they have no cause to worry on the cost of medical bills.
She told Journalists to do stories that reflect human angles, adding that they can explore the social media to get feed back from the community on what they feel and know about health insurance in the state.
Elizabeth Kah commended USAID-IHP for building the capacity of the members of J4PD assuring that the partnership will continue to provide the required media coverage for effective service delivery in the state health sector.
