Gombe: Healthcare Access For Tertiary Students

In another move to ensure Universal Health Coverage for all, the Gombe State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency, has concluded plans to provide health insurance coverage for Students of Tertiary Institution in the State.

The move by the Agency will not only assure the students of access to Healthcare services anywhere in the state, but also create an opportunity for funding of school clinics in the state, as respective school clinics will be the primary healthcare provider for the students and will recieve capitation payment from the Agency once accredited, thus creating a steady cash flow to the school clinic for the purchasing of drugs and overall management of the facility, but the school can decide alternately to choose any other primary or secondary healthcare facility which they may want their students to benefit from.

At a review meeting organised by the Agency to review the guidelines for the TSHIP programme it was agreed that, “with the payment of a premium of N3,000 per session students become eligible to benefit from the scheme”.

The Agency’s Team Lead Dr Abubakar Musa, who moderated the session noted that
“There is a high rate of death from preventable diseases…and as the population is increasing the burden of diseases is also increasing and in addition to widespread poverty, there is a spike in inflation and more people maybe unable to pay for healthcare services for themselves.”

“GoHealth provides protection from these problems by making available custom tailored prepayment plans through which everyone in the state is covered under the scheme…and we are projecting by the year 2026 at least 25% of the population of the state will be covered under the scheme.”

Dr. Musa revealed that the TSHIP programme comes with many benefits for not just the students but will ensure the sustainability of the school’s medical and health ecosystem, as the school clinic will be the primary healthcare provider once accredited.

Among the numerous provision included the the guidelines by participants was the call for the establishment of a TSHIP Committee for each Tertiary Institution. The Committee is to be chaired by the Head of the school medical Centre, representatives  of GoHealth, representatives of the student body, Dean of Student’s affairs, institution bursary and the school’s legal department.

This is in order to ensure accountability and transparency in the utilisation of funds.

By the end of the meeting all participants adopted the TSHIP guidelines for use, ahead of the ceremonial signing of an MoU, and subsequent enrollment of students.

Recall that the Agency in line with Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya Health reforms has announced plans to commencement provision of health coverage plan for Almajiri and Tsangaya children, that will provide them free access to qualitative Healthcare services.