Nigeria Content Online

Adamawa State has moved to provide health insurance coverage to civil servants in the state.

According to the
state governor, Murtala Nyako, increasing medical cost and the vagaries
of health has informed the decision of his administration to take
advantage of the health insurance scheme as a way of relief.

The governor, who
spoke on his assessment of projects embarked on by his administration
in the health sector, said, “Right now, the office of the governor is
overwhelmed by requests from people looking for small monies to go for
one form of health care or health examination, but with a good health
insurance scheme, this is totally unnecessary.”

He said the scheme
would free the civil servants partaking in the scheme from the
occasional challenge of not being able to pay for health service
delivery when they take ill. He called on the managers of the scheme
not to handle lightly, the security of the information on their
database.

Legal backing

The Director of the
health insurance scheme in the state, Saleh Shelleng, said the bill to
provide legal backing for the scheme had passed its second reading. The
passage would provide for the sustainability of the scheme. “Once the
law is enacted, the issue of sustainability of the scheme will no
longer be an issue. The law says the civil servant will contribute 5
per cent of his basic salary, and the insurance covers him, his wife
and four biological children,” he said.

“Under the health
insurance scheme, the government is required to make a contribution not
less than 10 per cent, to make up the insurance sum for each civil
servant partaking in the scheme.”

Mr Nyako said the state government was calling on the organized
private sector to partner with the government to extend coverage to the
rural areas.