The Executive Secretary of the Kogi State Health Insurance Agency, Dr Adekunle Aladare, has disclosed that currently, about 32,000 civil servants and 200 political appointees have also been enrolled in the Kogi State Health Insurance Scheme.
Speaking with newsmen in his office on Monday, he further disclosed that the formal sector plan is a family package, which means that civil servants or political appointees under this plan can enrol themselves and their other five dependents under it.
According to him, with $15,000 paid per person, which is renewable every year, the person can benefit a lot from the agency in the area of quality healthcare services.
“The agency has onboarded 32,000 civil servants, and they have started benefiting since March 2024. We have distributed identity cards to them, and we have sent the list of enrollees to all the hospitals where they can access healthcare.
“The agency has accredited over 80 health facilities where people can go to access quality healthcare, which are scattered across the 21 local government areas of the state.
“Also, if the enrolee is a female, she can enrol her husband, and the male civil servant can enrol his wife and four biological children less than 18 years of age. As the children clock 18 years of age, they can no longer benefit from the programme based on the operational guidelines of the agency.
“The agency also has another plan for people over 18 years old known as the Vital Health Insurance Plan. This plan is for families that are not working in the formal sector but are in businesses or the informal sector, such as market women and artisans, among others.
“The people in this category can also take advantage of health insurance to benefit from the low cost of accessing quality healthcare because, due to the removal of fuel subsidies, the cost of medical care has increased.
He also pointed out that the agency has the ability to negotiate a low cost of treatment in the hospital because the agency has large numbers of beneficiaries, and the hospitals too have a way of subsidising and reducing the cost of treatment. But when you go to the hospital as an individual, you will be paying out of pocket, and the hospital will charge you the normal rate. But when it is health insurance that takes the person to the hospital, the cost of treatment and the issuance of drugs are reduced.
His words, “Any enrollee that visits the hospital can see the doctor, collect cards, do laboratory tests, and even undergo surgical operations without paying kobo, but when you now go to the pharmacy section of the hospital, any drugs given to you, you can now pay 10 per cent of the money.
“This is the significance of the health insurance scheme established by the former governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to ease the suffering of Kogi people in the area of spending huge sums of money to access quality healthcare.
“Former Governor Bello is the first governor to establish health insurance in Kogi State, and the agency is living up to its expectations.
The current governor of the state, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, has launched the formal sector scheme for Kogi workers, and he has therefore consolidated what the former governor has done in the area of health to bring the dividend of democracy to the people.
“It will also interest you to know that the state government, in its magnanimity, has paid workers for three months (March, April, and May), meaning there will be no deduction from any worker’s salary for those three months in the name of health insurance. Every civil servant is expected to contribute 1.75 per cent of their basic salary to the scheme, while the state government also pays its counterpart contributions of 5% per civil servant to the scheme.
“So as of June 2024, the deduction of 1.75 per cent from civil servants salaries will commence, while March, April, and May remain free for the civil servants as the state government has paid for them, which shows how committed the government is towards the welfare of its workers.
“The second plan is the informal sector plan, where individuals in the sector are expected to pay $15,000 per year through the Vital Health Insurance Plan. We are into massive sensitization to enlighten people about the scheme and the need for them to take advantage of the insurance plan to better their health.
“The agency also has a vulnerable group plan for the people who are vulnerable and cannot even afford the cost of obtaining a card in the hospital. In this group, the state government will be paying $15,000 each to each beneficiary across the 21 local government areas of the state.
“The government will provide the fund, and the agency will enrol such categories of people in the state. Every year, the federal government sends money to us to cover the vulnerable people in all 239 wards of the state.
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