Akwa Ibom includes private health centres in state’s insurance health scheme

…enrols 24,000 residents

Akwa Ibom State Health Insurance Agency says it has enrolled over 24,000 persons since it was launched to provide affordable healthcare services to all categories of people in the State.

Igbemi Arthur Igbemi, the Executive Secretary of the Akwa Ibom State Health Insurance Agency, who spoke during an interview with BusinessDay, said the Agency had concluded plans to accredit private healthcare facilities to be part of the health insurance scheme.

“As at the time we did the launch, we had 11,000 people who had enrolled. But as we speak now, we have about 24,000 enrollees, so we have enrolled more than 12,000 people. They just completed the second phase of enrollment.

“People are actually calling us for the enrolment. If you are coming as an individual, you pay Eighteen thousand Naira (N18,000.00) for a year, but if you are more than ten in number as a group, we will reduce the money to N17,000 per year.

“If you are coming as a family, you will pay N96,000 for a family of six, and if you break it down, you realize that you are actually paying N16,000 just to encourage people. That was the idea of the governor.

“Currently we have opened up for the private medical facilities and we have more than 20 private health facilities showing interest. We would go and assess these facilities, for primary level services, secondary level services, if they qualify, we will give them accreditation for one year.

“And while enrollees have to make a down payment for themselves or family members, those in the vulnerable group including pregnant women, physically challenged individuals and the elderly people above 60 years have access to the healthcare services free of charge”, he said.

The Secretary explained that Akwa Ibom State Government had paid its counterpart fund for the basic healthcare development set up by the Federal Government which had enabled those under the vulnerable group to have access to free healthcare services.

He however said those who would be coming in as private individuals or groups would have to pay for the services, stressing, “You pay us before we enrol you and you have to wait for sixty days before you start assessing the services.

“We are using six primary health centres across the state for the pilot scheme, the primary healthcare operational base in Ikot Ekpene, Eket, Oron.

“We are also using the General Hospital in Ikot Ekpene Udoh, General Hospital, Iquita, General Hospital, Eket .We have accreditation for 80 primary healthcare centres, at least each local government has two.”