- As DSCHC Partners ACOMORAN
- Promises Soft Loan For Members
BY Jumai Nwachukwu
THE campaign to enable Deltans, irrespective of socio-economic status and area of residence, have access to healthcare has gathered momentum as more persons and groups are being mobilized to be inducted into the state’s health insurance scheme.
To this end, thousands of commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders have been offered the opportunity, through the Artisan Enrollee Inducement Initiative, which enables artisans’ opportunity to access quality and affordable healthcare.
Like members of the Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), whose over 300 members were enrolled into the scheme, recently, through the management of Delta State Contributory Health Commission (DSCHC), the Director-General of DSCHC, Dr. Isaac Akpoveta has promised to collaborate with the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN) to provide access to quality and affordable healthcare for about 40,000 of their members.
Receiving the leaders of ACOMORAN, in his office, Dr Akpoveta disclosed that the commission, in collaboration with banks, had made provisions for soft loans for artisans, allowing them to pay health insurance premiums in daily installments as low as N100 for 90 days.
According to him, the arrangement will enable them to receive care even before the payment is completed, adding that the DSCHC had an ongoing initiative called the Artisan Enrollee Inducement Initiative, which enables artisans, like the members of ACOMORAN, to have access to health insurance.
While noting that artisans, who formed what is called the “grey economy”, account for well-over 60 per cent of the income of the country and as such were a very powerful sector in the economy, Dr Akpoveta emphasized the benefits of health insurance for ACOMORAN, maintaining that the commission already had a provision in place for artisans in the state, which is an informal plan.
He enjoined them to always have the health insurance card on them as that will allow them to receive emergency care in any hospital under the scheme, highlighting the importance of emergency care due to the risk of accidents.
Akpoveta explained that “… a keke rider, whose clinic is at Okpanam but has a minor accident very close to the bridge head, can be rushed to any hospital under the scheme for emergency care”.
According to the DG, the Artisan Enrollee Inducement Initiative is one of the ongoing efforts by the commission to increase the number of enrollees in the scheme, thereby creating more access to quality and affordable healthcare for all Deltans.
He added that other initiatives include the Tertiary Institutions Social Health Insurance Program, aimed at students in tertiary institutions; the Indigent Enrollee Adoption Initiative, which allows well-meaning Deltans, both at home and abroad, to purchase health insurance premiums for the state’s indigent population, and the Access-to-Finance initiative, which provides healthcare for residents in remote areas of Delta State.
Earlier, the State Chairman of ACOMORAN, Comrade O.E. Augustine advocated that the association be integrated into the health insurance scheme at the state level as their members were vulnerable and prone to health challenges due to the nature of the work they do.
He said they were at the office of the commission to see how the association can be integrated into the health scheme.
Augustine said that a major part of the duties of ACOMORAN was to protect, promote and guide the interests of her members, and as such, the partnership was very important and much needed by the association, adding that the health of their members was paramount for them.
