By Mary Jalingo
The Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Alhaji Ahmed Marafa, has assured people of the of a speedy passage of the proposed bill on Niger State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme.
The speaker stated this during an advocacy visit by members of the Healthcare Financing Technical Working Group (HCF/TWG) to the legislators recently.
Alhaji Ahmed Marafa
He said as a politician, he has wondered what was the best way to impact on the electorates especially those who do not have access to him but ensure he was voted into office.
He added that he has tried empowerment, scholarship and sponsorship but felt something very vital was still missing considering the fact that on a daily basis, he received request for assistance for medical related problems.
He said from his interaction with stakeholders, the only problem that may hinder the success of the proposed contributory health insurance scheme of the state is sustainability, which he added an enabling law to back up the scheme would help sustain it.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Health, who is also the chairman of the HCF/TWG, said it was a known fact that healthcare services delivery was capital intensive.
He said government alone cannot everything especially with the recession and competing demands, which he said made the ministry to look out of the box to bring about innovation and creativity into the sector.
He said considering that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has being in the country since 13 years ago but was yet to be domesticated by any state due to the issue of trust, confidence and prudent which has made people to lost trust in the system.
The Permanent Secretary said the state has almost 80,000 work force adding that if everybody should become an enrollee and be contributing passively, once an enrollee starts contributing, will immediately start ripping the benefits unlike the state 7.5 pension scheme.
