The recent signing of the Cross River Health Insurance Bill into law has been described as a people-oriented policy deliberately packaged by Governor Ben Ayade to protect Cross Riverians and other Nigerians resident in Cross River from going through a catastrophe health expenditure that would further impoverish them.
Director-General, Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Betta Edu stated this while answering questions on a topic, “The Role of Cross River State Primary HealthCare Development Agency in the Implementation of the Cross River State Health Insurance Scheme: AyadeCare” on 105.5 Paradise FM on a programme tagged “Ayade’s Cross River” anchored by Beatrice Akpala and Solomon Asha on Thursday in Calabar.
Dr. Edu who explained that the “AyadeCare” is the Cross River health insurance scheme put together to assist the state achieve universal healthcare as soon as possible and act as a form of insurance for the citizens of the state and other Nigerians living in Cross River, by ensuring that every political ward in the state do not just have access to healthcare but to quality healthcare through putting in place sustainable and smart form of healthcare financing in place for the interest of all.
“It is to act as a form of social Insurance for our people, involving pulling resources together such that we can protect citizens and persons resident in Cross River from going through catastrophe health expenditure that would further impoverish them. Cross River State led by Senator Ben Ayade is working hard at ensuring that we can achieve universal healthcare and secondly that every ward will not just have access to healthcare but have access to quality healthcare, and is helping us to ensure this by having a sustainable and smart form of health financing put in place”.
On the role of her agency, she maintained that “basically the role of the Cross River state Primary Health care Development Agency has been one of sensitization right from the onset, just as governor Ayade takes his time to do things step by step. Initially when he came into office he disclosed his intention to have a health insurance scheme in place to afford our people quality healthcare, and then he started by asking us to go to every community in Cross River to sensitize them on the need to buy into the health insurance scheme, help them have a clear understanding of what it mean by pulling our risk together and benefitting together.
“If we have to individually pay for our healthcare you know what the cost is right now with inflation everywhere and the price of everything going up and then no money available for social services, there must be an alternative, there must be something sustainable, and this is what Governor Ayade was driving at right from the onset. We have gone through the 196 Wards of the state, sensitizing the people, talking to them, getting to hear what their fears are and allaying some of the fears which they raised during the discussions, some around the fact that they have done some insurance stuff before, some with the national, some with the private insurance companies and they have not kept to their own part of the bargain.
We assured them that this system is going to be a very transparent and clear one, is going to have both the international community involve in it such that everyone can have confidence and trust that if you pay one thousand (N1000) naira every month he/she can be able to receive this care. After this sensitization, we step up by working with the State House of Assembly to put this through the legislative arm, and the Bill was sponsored by Hon. Dr. Ekpo-Ekpo Bassey, a medical doctor who know the important of Cross River achieving universal health covering before any other state in Nigeria. The bill went through the normal process, the three reading and two days ago, we had the final stamp on it, the final step which meant that we were actually at the end of the tunnel which was the assenting to that bill by the Governor. This is one of the greatest achievements of the governor Ayade’s administration”.
The DG primary healthcare Development Agency said that the N1000 is for every cross Riverian living in the state and those outside the state who feel that they have relatives in the state that their support will help protect and guarantee better healthcare for them as well as other Nigerians in Cross River, explaining that the agency is still sensitizing the people on the need to buy into the health insurance scheme.
“By sensitization, we just want to break it down to the barest minimum to help them understand it clearly, it is as simple as saying if you are diabetic or hypertensive and you have to buy a tablet or one drug or the other every day for one month, how much would that cost you, certainly it weighs more than N1000. Let say two people in one household are down with malaria and you have to get two packs of anti-malaria which will be N1200; so you have a scheme that says pay just one thousand and you have all of these cover for you. This basic sensitization to help our people understand how important and how sustainable the scheme is what we started with, and beyond this there will still be further deliberations with different stakeholders and interests groups across the state.
Talks are on with the labour which forms the formal sector to see how they can buy into it and everyone who is working in that sector to buy into it; you can’t over-emphasis the need of those from the informal sector to buy in which will involve cooperatives, Churches and different groups buying into what is already ongoing. Beyond this, individuals, politicians etc. are encourage to buy into what is going on. You could pick up a health bill for 100 persons’ in your community to ensure that they have access to quality healthcare. We would equally be expecting some gifts and donations from philanthropist individuals, partnership from donor agencies, the World Bank and the government which the commitment is already there to ensure that the state healthcare insurance kicks off immediately and meets its target of providing universal healthcare to Cross Riverians”.
She assured cross Riverians that the administration of Senator Ayade meant well for them as regards the State Health Insurance, stating that it is based on this reality that while signing the bill into law the governor clearly said that the health insurance funds will not be handle by government nor its agencies, because government is not a health insurance company stressing that the process for the selection of Health maintenance Organizations (HMOs) would be supervised by International partners, while government will insist that they would be HMOs take qualitative healthcare to the door steps of the people .
Dr. Edu stated that the leadership with ethics policy of Ayade’s administration came to bear in the final document of the Health Insurance law as those less than 18 years, pregnant women, the physically and mentally challenged as well as the very poor and indigent persons are exempted from the monthly health insurance premium of N1000 but are entitled to full medical benefits and allay the fears of those already paying health insurance premium at the national or private health insurance companies that discussion and modalities would be put in place to ensure that such persons also enjoy from the state health insurance, as the programme is comprehensive covering all aspects of medical, while the payment comes from above, adding she thanked all the foreign partners for assisting in the various programmes of the agency for their support.
Speaking further on the benefits associated with the state health insurance, Dr. Edu explained that the Cross river Health Insurance, AyadeCare is a form of risk sharing, that guarantees that at any point that oneself, one’s brother/sister parents or any Cross Riverian is sick, that person or persons do not need to have money in his /her pocket but can just walk to the nearest health facility and access healthcare free of charge at the point of utilization.
“As you pay this token you are giving a shoulder for another person to lean on, sacrifice is a contribution which you will benefit, they will benefit, we sharing the risk, sharing the benefits, we are preventing individuals, families at this point where we have an economic recession from going into a state where we would say they have catastrophe health expenditure and they are now impoverished. You know some time people come down with illnesses like cancer and the family spend so much to take care of them that impoverished not just one generation but it cascade down to yet another generation, that is what this form of health financing can help us overcome, that is what the Cross River State Health Insurance Scheme, AyadeCare can help us to overcome.
For us the watch word is universal health coverage, health access, we want everyone to have access to healthcare whether you are in the rich middle or low cadre, whichever class, we want you to access healthcare that you deserved. What the AyadeCare stand for, what the state insurance scheme stands to achieve for Cross River State is beyond party, is beyond Ayade himself, beyond the government of Cross River State. Our healthcare insurance for us as a people, by us as a people, it is a brother giving a shoulder to another brother, its sacrifice to ensure that everyone can live healthy and make productive contributing to our state. We call on every one , if you are a politician in any party, this is beyond party lines , let’s all buy into the state health insurance, let’s get our families, friends, members of our wards insured as part of empowerment is to ensure that your people are healthy”.
On her achievements since she assumed office, Dr. Edu said, explained that she started Special Adviser on Primary health and community health and part of what her first assignment was to liaise with the Federal Government to put together an Agency and by March this year, governor Ayade after going through all the recommendations and appropriate steps, the agency was established with the Board put in place which hitherto has been dragging for five years going.
She disclosed thus, “We have been able to step up our immunization coverage on several immunizations exercises to the 100 percent mark which we were greatly commended by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Most of the primary healthcare centres when we came on board were all in a very abysmal state and we decided that rather than going on to build more primary healthcare centres and putting in much more money, why don’t we limit ourselves to making what already exists functional. So we first of all went about getting out one primary healthcare centre in every ward in cross River state such that you can ensure that 3000 persons can have access to quality healthcare.
After earmarking these primary health centres we wanted to begin our intervention with, we selected the first four and as we speak, we have completed that, two of which the wife of the present, Mrs. Aisha Buhari came in person to commission at Ikom, Itayep and Ajijinkpo all in Ikom LGA with the wife of the governor, Dr. Linda Ayade. Beyond this, we have repaired and fully refurbished the primary healthcare centres at Anengeje and the primary healthcentre at Bedia in Obudu, we have done the primary health centre in Biase LGA which is still awaiting commissioning. Our target is to get at least one functional primary health Centre in every ward which will serve as the hub for other primary healthcare facilities in that ward, it will serve as the referral point and anything that goes above that centre then it will be refer to the secondary level of care which is the General hospitals in the various locations. Beyond this we have been able to bring in solar power panels for our immunizations and coaching equipment, solar electricity into our maternity wards, labour rooms, emergency areas in about 50 primary healthcare centres across the state with support from “We care solar and pathfinder international.
Last two months, Governor Ayade employed 18 medical doctors and sent them to the 18n LGAS of the state to boost health services in these LGAs, so they can give some assistance to the midwives, nurses and other medical personnel already working at this level. We had several donations from several sources ranging from solar refrigerators for our vaccines which is to keep them potent to the point we can deliver them to our children to prevent our children from coming down with vaccine preventable diseases. We had other donations that have help to improve healthcare at the primary healthcare level.
We are far from where we want to be but we have the support of the Governor, Senator Ben Ayade and we are working with partners to see how we can even at this point of economic downturn where [people are pulling out from social services because they do not generate revenue for government, we have a committed governor who is rather putting into social services, who is pro-poor, who is pro–health striving to improve the healthcare delivery in Cross River. We know that if they have good health, then they can become productive and it will also rob off positively in our economy in general”, Dr. Edu concluded.
Watch Video Below…