Board chairman urges Niger residents to embrace health insurance scheme
By Rita Iliya
The Chairman, Niger State Board of Internal Revenue Service, Mr Mohammed Etsu, has called on residents especially persons in the informal sector to key into the state’s health insurance scheme.
He made the call during a joint meeting with the Niger State Social Insurance Health Care on the Integration of Tax for Service in Minna on Thursday.
Etsu said that the board was collaborating with the Niger State Contributory Health Agency (NSGCHA) to bring people from the informal sector to enroll in the state health insurance scheme, NiCARE.
“We are supporting the agency to get people from the informal sector to key into the health insurance scheme to achieve the objective for the establishment of the agency.
“This is because as a board, we have been able to win the confidence of the informal sector toward revenue generation and registrations,” he said.
He said the board would ensure that persons on its platform keyed into the scheme especially members of the transport unions from the informal sector.
Hajiya Habiba Umaru, Head of the Informal Sector, NSGCHA, said residents were expected to pay N7,200 per annum to enroll for the scheme.
She said the enrollees would be issued with identification cards to start accessing care from any private and public health facility registered with the scheme.
“This health insurance scheme is cheaper and more convenient as it helps to reduce medical expenditure amidst the harsh economic reality in the country,” she said.
Umaru said that the N7,200 covers treatments such as malaria, antenatal care, typhoid, deliveries, road accident, snake bite, sickle cell anemia, cesarean section, appendix, x-ray, blood group and hernia.
Hajiya Ladidi Kuta, the Commissioner for Transport in Niger, advised members of the unions in the transport sector to key into the scheme and pledged to enroll members of road traffic vanguard for free.
Also, Malam Musa Isiaku, National Vice Chairman of Almalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Riders Owners Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), promised to mobilise their members to enroll in the scheme.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NiCARE is a healthcare financing reform (Social Health Insurance Scheme) which operates on the principles of harmony, risk- sharing and polling of resources for the provision of affordable, accessible and qualitative healthcare to the workforce and residents alike on a sustainable basis.(NAN)
Edited by Ijendu Iheaka/Isaac Ukpoju
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