WE NEED TO BRIDGE ADAMAWA HEALTH INSURANCE GAP-ASCHMA CAUTIONS, AS MEAGRE 4 PERCENT OF STATE POPULATION IS ENROLED
Only 200, 000 people representing a meagre 4 percent, out of an estimated 4.9 million people in Adamawa State have health insurance.
Officials of the Adamawa state Contributory Health Management Agency ASCHMA, who raised the concern, while speaking on USAKU FM’s Good Morning Show, harped on the need to bridge the gap in health insurance in the State.
Demajah Gabriel, picks it up.
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The popular maxim, has it, that health is wealth, this is what Adamawa State Contributory Health Management Agency ASCHMA team is shedding light on. This concerns persons who are able to get proper health care in the State and under what insurance terms?
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ASCHMA Head of formal sector Dr. Yakubu Kennedy, says since the Health insurance bill was passed into law by Governor Ahmadu Umaru in 2020, the agency has been mandated to regulate insurance for residents in the formal space and in the informal space
“It has mandated the agency for contriibutory Health Insurance, both at the formal sector and also the informal space, the target is that everybody in Adamawa State, gets to have access to Healthcare at a minial cost”
ASCHMA Enforcement officer, Pharmarcist Abdul-Aziz Tahir, explained the subscription model under the agency
“In Adamawa State Health Insurance Agency, we normally subcribe at N15,000 per person,
per anum and then for family, we subsidize it at N60,000 “
On his part, ASCHMA Desk Officer Informal sector Mohammed Sajo, while acknowledging that some controversy may arise, in the course of obtaining insurance, disclosed that the standard and quality assurance units, ensures grievances and questions are addressed.
“There is a department at the agency, we call the standard and quality assurance Department, as part of addressing issues,
there is an enforcement unit and then there is a call centre for complaints, inquiries and all other suggestions”
Insurance is one of the financing models in health care that is aimed at pulling risk of people, ranging from the sick and healthy, the poor and the rich, and also the young and old. and putting their contribution together so that it can be used to procure their services for any that is sick. The target in Adamawa State is for everyone to have access to healthcare at a minimal cost, without suffering any financial hardship.