Kwara State has been described as the home of Community Health Insurance Scheme due to its pivotal role in spreading healthcare delivery to the grass roots.
The Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS), Dr Femi Thomas made this confirmation when he led the management of the scheme on a courtesy visit to the State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed, at the Government House, Ilorin.
Dr Thomas called for universal health coverage rather than isolated healthcare coverage across the country to ensure affordable and accessible healthcare delivery services.
He said health insurance coverage for 24million primary schools pupils across the country would be introduced by September this year while mobile health insurance policy would be introduced next month.
Responding, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed called for the creation of a working model to enable the Federal, State and Local Governments create a functional funding window to support the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in meeting healthcare delivery services in Nigeria.
This, he said, would lower the funding pressure of the contributory schemes of the state and workers and enable the government to address the healthcare challenges of its citizenry.
According to him, adequate attention should be given to health sector funding policies to enable the state join the NHIS and create leverage for workers to migrate.
The governor also called for strong institutional framework to drive NHIS to fruition level with a view to ensuring productive workforce.
Governor Ahmed stressed the need for a synergy between policy making and policy implementation to strengthen healthcare services in line with the current funding realities in the country.
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