The FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS) on Thursday commended the administration of President Bola Tinubu for its plan to prioritise health insurance scheme for the benefits of Nigerians.
Dr Ahmed Danfulani, the director of the agency gave the commendation at an engagement with the media in Abuja to further create more awareness about the activities of the scheme.
He said the new administration had shown the desire to promote health insurance, saying this had featured prominently in most of the president’s public speeches.
Danfulani also said the president had made health insurance a key objective of the renewed hope agenda.
He however called on the president to sign the FCT Health Insurance Bill and create other documents to support the bill towards meeting up with the country’s target of Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
The director, who appreciated the media for standing by FHIS in terms of creating awareness for FCT residents on the benefits of health insurance, called on journalists to do more.
He said that the enrollees of health insurance in the FCT had increased largely due to the acceptability of the scheme.
“But I must tell you, we are not yet where we want to be. We expect more, regular and consistence information from the media to help us achieve our aim.
“The media still needs to do more on sensitisation for FHIS.
“The media should help us with awareness creation in the communities on the types of programme we have in the health insurance.
“Help us to tell FCT residents that health insurance is not only for civil servants, it is for everybody.
“Most of the poor we have already enrolled on the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) may not access the service if they are not informed. So, the media also needs to help us in this regard.
“It is not enough to only register, but also to access the services of FHIS,” Danfulani stressed.
The director disclosed that the agency had engaged some new staff, who would be trained on marketing strategies and reaching out to area council offices to engage with people one-on-one about health insurance scheme.
He added that the agency was also going to engage in town hall meetings to create more awareness about the scheme, all in the aim of bringing the services to the door steps of the poor masses.
Miss Onyeka Ojogwu, Health Finance Advisor, United States Agency for International Development Integrated Health Programme (USAID-IHP), also called on the media to help propagate the scheme by creating more awareness for the public.
According to her, USAID-IHP is one of the FHIS very close partners, and that the agency works closely with FHIS to provide technical support and to see how awareness and enrollment of people into the scheme can increase.
She particularly called on the media to increase the enlightenment campaign in the rural areas “where we have enough mother’s and children yet so ignorant of the service.”
Earlier, the Acting Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS), Mr Malan Haruna, commended the media, saying that the 25 per cent success FHIS had recorded was largely due to the awareness created by the media.
According to him, the engagement with the media is vital to help break all the misconceptions about health insurance scheme in the FCT.