The Ogun State government has launched an agency to oversee its new health insurance scheme. This was done to ensure an affordable, accessible and effective healthcare service delivery in the state.
Speaking at the event in Abeokuta, the state capital, the immediate past governor, Ibikunle Amosun, said the health needs of the citizenry are of utmost priority to the state government.
Amosun, who was represented by the former Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, further stated that the Amosun-led administration initially launched the community-based health insurance scheme to cater for healthcare needs of the vulnerable in the society, adding that the scheme later evolved to accommodate all citizenry irrespective of age, religion and status.
Underscoring the essence of the event, the former Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, said the agency was created to drive the delivery of the state-wide health insurance scheme to allow for effective and efficient healthcare delivery of any form of package of care under the scheme. “The health insurance agency is the agency of government that we have deliberately created to drive the delivery of the state-wide health insurance scheme in Ogun State to allow for an effective and efficient delivery of any form of package of care.
“We need to create a governmental body that will be independent of bureaucracies of government and allow that agency to deliver a bespoke intervention by pooling health resources together and sharing common risks among the people irrespective of their economic status,” Ipaye said.
He added that the agency would be independent of bureaucracies of government and would be a multi-layered scheme, which would pool resources from both public, organised and informal private sector and different social clusters, adding that funds generated would be managed by a governance structure, which include representatives of various stakeholders, particularly the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Nigerian Farmers Association and Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
In his goodwill message, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Director, Mr. Ben Omogo, represented by Mrs. Modupe Ogundimu, commended the government for the laudable stride, pledging his support for the agency.
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