Osun To Commence Health Insurance Scheme

By Aderinto Olusola

It has been revealed that the resolve of the administration of Mr. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State is to guarantee healthy living for all residents of the state through the provision of effective, qualitative and affordable health care services in line with the policy of Osun Health Insurance Scheme (O'HIS).

This was made known by the Executive Secretary of O'HIS, Dr. Niyi Oginni during a press conference on the preparedness for take-off of the scheme in Oshogbo recently.

Dr. Oginni stated that governor Oyetola demonstrated this by approving the release of a take-off grant of one hundred and fifty million naira for Osun Health Insurance Agency, for the establishment of O'HIS business and zonal offices across the 68 Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Authorities.

He stated that the governor approved, "the employment of ad-hoc personnel, procure operational vehicles, stationeries, finance its publicity and marketing plans, conduct registration and enrollment of residents, conduct vulnerability research and enrollment of the vulnerable population.

"And establishment of a call centre, installation of the necessary ICT infrastructure for health insurance operations as well as conduct advocacy and sensitization of different sectors of the population and capacity building for the staff of the agency".

He maintained that government had released the circular for the commencement of deductions of 1.5% of Basic Salary of public servants as well as approval of 3% contribution of government to public servants premium to be prepared with their salary warrant.

The O'HIS boss also stated that the present administration has ensured that provision for the equity grants from state, LGAs and LCDAs has been captured in the 2019 Budget of Hope of the state.

As a means of achieving this, the scheme has conducted interviews for several categories of TPAs and selected the successful ones for engagement with us.

"Similarly, government and secondary health facilities that expressed interest to participate in the scheme have been inspected and the ones meeting our accreditation criteria have been given provisional accreditation for service provision under the scheme".

Earlier, Dr. Oginni has noted that it was the administration of Rauf Aregbesola who had originated an Executive Bill for the Osun Health Insurance Scheme (O'HIS) in line with the global and national development agenda in the health sector.

He revealed that the Bill was passed into Law by the State House of Assembly on 30th October, 2018 and assented by the then governor on the 20th of October, 2018.

"With the law in place, it is clear the state has moved from the Free Health  Service olicy (FHS) to the State Social Health Insurance Scheme (SSHIS) as the vehicle for delivering the needed health care service to the good people of our state.

"It is therefore imperative for health sector policy formulators and implementators not only to imbibe the SSHIS paradigm but to vigorously communicate this to the citizenry in order to secure citizens buy-in into the health insurance programme".

Oginni hinted that the O'HIS benefit package covers all the common ailments including malaria fever, typhoid fever, pneumonia, minor injuries, reproductive health services, child delivery, caesarian section and selected surgical operations.