Bauchi Enrols 80,000 Vulnerable Persons Into Basic Healthcare Programme

Bauchi State government has enrolled about 80,000 vulnerable persons into the federal government Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) since its inception in June 2021 to date to improve and ensure access to healthcare for all.

This was disclosed by the executive secretary, Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHCMA) Dr Mansur Dada during a one-day media engagement on Health Insurance Scheme organised by Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiative (J4PD) in partnership with the USAID Integrated Health Programme (IHP) held at the Hazibal Event Hall in Bauchi yesterday.

He said the agency is implementing the programme in the 323 primary health facilities across the state, 26 general hospitals and Specialist Hospital, Bauchi.

According to him, “40 percent of the registered vulnerable enrollees are currently accessing medical services in all the health facilities by June 2023, the programme will clock two years since inception. The informal sector programme targets those that are neither vulnerable or working in an organized setting and it accounts for more than 75 percent of the population, it can be individual or family plan.”

He said under the formal sector, an individual plan is N12,000 while a family plan is N10,000 each with maximum of 7 family members per year, adding that the programme which commenced in the month of August 2022, has now 174 enrollees.

Speaking earlier on the overview of USAID IHP 2022 outlook health financing support to Bauchi State, the State IHP Health Financing Advisor, Pharmacist Khalid Kasimu, said that the goal of IHP is to contribute to the state level reduction in child and maternal morbidity and mortality and increase the capacity of health system to sustainably support quality PHC services.

He said it was important for journalists to create more awareness on the benefits of health insurance and how to access it, pointing that many people are still spending out of their pockets due to ignorance.

In her remarks, the state coordinator for J4PD, Elizabeth Nange Kah, urged journalists to mobilise households to enroll in the Bauchi State Insurance Scheme so that whenever they are sick, they have no cause to worry about the cost of medical bills.

She told journalists to do stories that reflect human angles, adding that they can explore social media to get feedback from the community on what they feel and know about health insurance in the state.