Kogi: Health Insurance Agency secures 80 facilities for enrollees

By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.

KOGI State Health Insurance Agency (KSHIA) has accredited over 80 Healthcare facilities across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state to enhance enrollees’ access to quality healthcare services.

Dr Aladare Adekunle, Executive Secretary of the Agency who disclosed in an interaction with newsmen on Sunday in Lokoja said the Agency had enrolled 32,000 civil servants.

Also enrolled are 200 political appointees under the formal sector plan of the scheme, noting that the plan, as a family package, takes care of a civil servant and five dependants under him or her.

“Since we came on board about five to six years ago, we have established three health care plans, first is the formal sector plan for the state workers and political appointees.

“Currently, about 32,000 civil servants have been onboarded into formal sector plan and about 200 political appointees have also been onboarded.

“The formal sector plan is a family package which means that a civil servant or political appointee under this plan can enroll him or her self along with five dependants.

“Also if the enrollee is a female, she can enroll her husband and the male civil servant can enroll his wife and four biological children less than 18 years of age.

“And as the children clock 18 years, they can no longer benefit from the programme based on the operational guideline of the agency” Adekunle said.

The Executive Secretary further explained that the Agency also has a plan for persons above 18 years under its Vital Health Insurance Plan.

According to him, this plan is for families that are not working in the formal sector but are into businesses or informal sector such as market women and artisans among others.

Dr Adekunle said that the people under this category could also take advantage of the health insurance to benefit from quality healthcare at low cost.

The Executive Secretary said the initiative was against the backdrop of the prevailing exorbitant cost of accessing healthcare facilities occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy the cost of medical care has increased.”

Adekunle commended former Governor Yahaya Bello for establishing the agency, saying that the current governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo had graciously paid three months (March, April and May) for workers.

He explained that there would be no deductions from any worker’s salary for that three months in the name of health insurance.

“Every civil servant is expected to pay 1.75 per cent of the Basic Salary to the scheme while the state government also pays its counterpart contributions of five per cent per civil servant to the scheme”, he said.

Governor Ododo has paid for civil servants for the months of March, April and May so the civil servants will commence payment by June, 2024″, the Executive Secretary further explained. (Ends)