BY Onome Amuge,
The Lagos State government has paid for the enrolment of 5,000 people into the state’s Health Insurance Scheme to ensure an all-inclusive healthcare delivery system for residents in the state.
Olukayode Ogunbayo, sales manager of the Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA), made the disclosure at the ongoing enrolment of congregants into the scheme at the Alausa Central Mosque in Ikeja.
Ogunbayo, who described health as a priority in every society, said that the payment made by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the state governor, covered 1,000 people in each of the five divisions of the state.
The LASHMA sales manager also noted that the agency has begun the capturing of people into the governor’s bill in Ikorodu, Ikeja, Badagry, Epe, Lagos Mainland and Lagos Island.
Ogunbayo noted that the state Health Insurance Act which signed into law in 2021 made it mandatory for everyone in the state to be captured into the health insurance scheme. He added that the agency is making progressive efforts towards ensuring the inclusion of all Lagos residents.
“People’s health is service-oriented and the state is not taking it lightly. We are optimistic that the state, in no distant time, will get to that level where people will no longer die of treatable illnesses,” he said.
He also commended the governor for the gesture to the indigent people of the state that cannot afford good health, noting that it would go a long way to take the burden off many families.
He said that the package covered general consultation, health education and disease prevention, management of uncomplicated chronic diseases, minor surgeries and others, to assist people to gain improved health.
According to him, the scheme has registered health providers located in many areas of the state to enable people to have easy access to healthcare delivery.
He, thereafter, urged all Lagosians to enrol in the scheme to enjoy a better health system in the state, adding that they could do so with as low as N1,000.
