By Polycarp Auta
The Plateau State Contributory Healthcare Management Agnecy (PLASCHEMA) has sensitised Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to modalities toward achieving Universal Health Coverage in the state.
Mr Wuyep David, the Director, Health Services, Standards and Quality Control of the agency, said at the event on Thursday in Jos, that CSOs remained critical stakeholders toward achieving universal health coverage in the state.
He said the event was put together to seek their support to actualise the agency’s quest to ensure all citizens of the state got access to affordable healthcare services.
David explained that the agency wanted to leverage on the direct link most CSOs are having with the rural populace, to achieve its mandate.
He added that the agency organised the meeting to enable it to lean on the contacts of the CSOs, to enable rural populace to enroll in the scheme.
”As an agency, we deal with both the formal and informal sector, but the formal sector who are largely workers of state or local government areas, have been captured in our scheme already.
”Our major challenge at the moment is largely the informal sector; those local farmers, tomatoes sellers, etc, who survive on daily income.
”We can talk of achieving universal health coverage only when this category of persons are fully captured on this scheme and are seen to have easy access to affordable healthcare services.
”So, we decided to reach out to the category of persons, particularly at the rural areas through the CSOs because they are well positioned in communities.
”We decided to capitalise and leverage on the contacts of these CSOs in communities to reach out to the informal sector, he said.
He explained that to enrol in the scheme, those in the informal sector were expected to pay N12,000 each annually, adding that the agency had created room to enable them to pay the money in parts.
He explained that once an intending beneficiary was able to pay 50 per cent of the money, the agency would allow such person to access healthcare services under the scheme.
One of the participants at the event, Alhaji Faruk Musa, the Coordinator of the Muslim Council of Nigeria in Plateau, described the meeting as ‘apt’.
He said the gathering would yield positive result because CSOs were stakeholders at grassroots, adding that it would further place the focus of the agnecy on a better path.
”CSOs are present in the nooks an grannies of the society; they are community based and so this engagement will go a long way to spread the message of PLASCHEMA to the people.
”This interface today will afford PLASCHEMA the opportunity to reach out to a wide range of people in the informal sector,” he said. (NAN)
