The Ebonyi Government last Tuesday said the state’s Community Health Insurance Scheme would be used to boost maternal and child care programmes in the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Sunday Nwangele, said in Abakaliki that the scheme would be used to drive efficient infant and maternal healthcare services.
He said that the programme would give more access to healthcare services to pregnant and nursing mothers as well as children below five years.
According to him, the health insurance programme, which was community-based, would be accessed on the payment of N150 by the enrollees monthly.
He explained that necessary measures had been put in place for grassroots awareness and sensitisation campaign to enlighten the rural dwellers on the importance of keying into the programme.
The commissioner said the initiative would reduce the rate of infant and maternal mortality and pregnancy-related death which was high in the rural areas.
He maintained that with less than N2, 000 annually, beneficiaries of the scheme would have paid their hospital bills for the year.
Nwangele said the scheme would cover health issues ranging from child delivery, surgical operation, ante-natal and post- natal treatments among others.
He said that all the 13 general hospitals owned by the state government and some mission hospitals had been equipped and upgraded to enhance the success of the programme.
The commissioner said that government attached much importance to the health needs of the citizenry.
He said government would do everything possible to ensure the provision of efficient healthcare services to the people in line with the health policy of the state.
“The community health insurance scheme is one of the surest ways to provide access to medical facilities to vast population of women and infants living in our rural communities,’’ he said.
He also said that government had concluded arrangements to bring civil servants into the National Health Insurance Scheme to reduce the burden of high medical bills on Ebonyi workers.
“We are concerned about the high cost of medical bills and the sufferings of the civil servants in terms of payment of medical bills.
“Government has completed plans to introduce the scheme to the state civil servants to ease pains of high medical bills,’’ he said.
