Only yesterday, Cross River State House of Assembly passed our executive bills, which is coming back to me for accent, which is providing medical insurance cover for every Cross Riverian, you are just required to pay N1,000 a month, with one thousand naira a month, you have free medical attention. But a government with one thousand naira a month from at least two million Cross Riverians gives you two billion naira a month, so ultimately, two billion a month going to the hospitals for drugs and for medication and all other support services is good in health.
While non citizens and residents of Cross River State will go to commercial hospitals, and pay, but what we are going to provide is a first-class hospital and so you have a big challenge. If you look at the medical tourism, the by-concept of the medical city that is what we want to have. In each senatorial district we have one primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare delivery system in one place and our proposed State Identity Management Board that we are setting up, that each Cross Riverians will have a biometric ID Card which will be #2000 each, the ID Card qualifies you to get your free access to all medical services at no extra cost, so if you want any of your kids to be captured under the programme, it is just #1000 per month.
We must thank Cross River State House of Assembly for being very effective. This bill came very fast and rapid succession and the Federal Government is keying into it, the Federal Government is excited and has shown so much interest and representation even at the public hearing, but it is a fantastic concept, it is this concept that together we do it easier. If you look at #1,000 naira a month guaranteeing full medical services worth #12,000 a whole one year, it can be cheaper but if you look at putting it worth #2billion every month on medical services, it does sound good, it can pay all the expatriate doctors that we will need, it will have a specialist unit, eye unit, cancer, hypertension and diabetes, we are going to have about five key centres that will focus on our traditional ailments. So from the speciality that comes from the program, with the secondary health programme and the primary in the 3 senatorial districts, it means that you don’t necessary need to be captured under the state structure either as a local government or a state civil servant to be able to be in the programme. Once you have the identity card, it gives you automatic access because it is with the identity card that you will pay your N1,000 a month.
The beauty here is that, there are lots of international funding to support public sector health and a programme of this nature. So even drugs will be supplied by way of support. Federal government is keying into it to support Cross River State Government. Cross River State will be the first state that the whole citizens will be captured under an insurance program with a pricing model that is affordable for everybody. This extends to mean also that if you have a medical ailment that is beyond the carrying capacity of our hospital, based on your insurance scheme, this program can send you abroad for treatment. It is all going to be database. There is a solar support system in the hospitals to supply the power to ensure this database runs smoothly. It is going to be massive medical revolution, where with just N1,000 you are guaranteed your safety.
We are in touch with the United Nations, the World Health Organization, World Bank, they all made inputs into this bill. It is evident that in this programme, there will be a lot of donor support for this scheme, because definitely everybody knows that N1,000 cannot give you an insurance cover in a month or N12,000 can give you an insurance cover in a year. But I know that my N1,000 contribution will help support somebody somewhere and indeed provide for those who are not comfortable and I am willing to pay more. So for me as a governor, I am ready to dedicate a certain percentage of my own income to support the insurance programme. The bill also provides for any public person, any person of goodwill who wants to show goodwill to the people of Cross River State to support. So we are also going to approach some successful rich Nigerians to support the insurance programme, so that your child like my child will have access to medication inspite of the circumstances of their parents.
We are going to be on your neck to push for the American Taxpayers, particularly corporate who will be willing to support Africa. To show how successful this programme, even when I have not signed it into law, banks are falling over themselves, struggling to provide the support for the hospital construction to start because they want to host the funds coming from the insurance.
So if they host that, which means an average of one billion is going to be running through that account every month. The take off grant to start up the construction of this hospital is already begging for us to have. So it tells you that the strength or success of government is not the income of the state but the intellectual capacity of the team and that’s why inspite of our challenging allocation, Cross River State has continue to pay salaries, has continue to sustain our security, has continue to keep our environment clean and continue to deepen our concept and ideas to build new cities, new highway, new deep seaport, concepts that as soon as the Federal Government gives us all the approvals, we already have investors waiting. Ideas lead the world, not money.
“The idea of this bill is to provide a platform for the poor who cannot afford insurance. This bill is an absolute service to humanity. I will have an international team to manage this fund, so we are going to approach the World Bank to assist us in recruiting managers of this fund, irrespective of their country.”
