Lean purse bane of insurance enrolment
By Edith Igbokwe
Many residents of Oshodi have complained that lack of funds is depriving them from.enrolling in the Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme
The insurance scheme enables families to have access to quality healthcare services without needing to make additional payment at the point of care.
A resident who did not disclose his name to Echonews : “The health insurance scheme is a good development offer brought to our door step, but the financial status of people presently cannot give them the chance to make provision for health scheme when they hardly feed themselves.
“Other bills such as house rent, utilities bills (electricity, waste, security) are listed as part of things that handicapped people from registering for the health insurance,” the resident complained.
ECHONEWS gathered that the ongoing health scheme insurance enrollment at Oshodi terminals 1, 2 & 3 will still last for the period of six months to take care of health challenges of the people in two different categories.
The first category which is family premium takes care of father, mother and four children below 18 years of age while the second which is individual premium takes care of only one person.
For the family premium scheme, the beneficiary is required to pay N40,000 per year, which can be paid quarterly at the rate of N11, 550 and or N3,850 per month while residents could register for individual premium with N8,500 per year.
As gathered, the payment for the individual premium scheme could be made in instalment of N2,450 quarterly and or N820 monthly with the provision of valid identity card that proves bear’s residence in Lagos.
The healthcare services covered under the scheme include common ailments and conditions, maternity – new born and child care including caesarean section where necessary, management of uncomplicated chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma and others, access to HIV & TB testing services, minor surgeries such as incision drainage, herniorrhaphy, appendectomy, health promotion and disease prevention.
To access the healthcare services, the insured person needs to choose either a private or public health facilities from the accredited hospitals and wait for a period of 35 days to access service and at the point of care, the proof of registration must be provided.
However, Lagos State has put in place a residence adoption tree model designed as a social responsibility initiative to help millions of vulnerable residents to access the social healthcare insurance policy.
The initiative is said to be targeted at encouraging ordinary Nigerians, corporate bodies, political appointees, foreign government and donor agencies to adopt the vulnerable persons by funding their healthcare coverage.
