The Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority Scheme (KADCHMA) says it is introducing daily/weekly contrubutory payment as part of its efforts to make payment flexible for residents.
Mr Abubakar Hassan, the Director-General of the scheme, said this on Thursday, during a meeting with the Executive of Associations of Tricycle Operators (Keke Napep) at the scheme’s conference hall in Kaduna.
Hassan said the scheme was embarking on a pilot project with daily earners to boost enrollment into the health system.
He explained that the scheme intended to make payment flexible to accommodate wider coverage.
“We intend to start a pilot project with daily earners who cannot afford to pay once in a year.
“We are making it daily or weekly contributions to ease payment for them,’’ he said.
He said they were starting the pilot project with the tricycle association because they had over 40,000 members in the state.
`The contributory health scheme is a way of contributing funds for the payment of healthcare services by all residents of the state.
“The scheme will cover for health care services rendered to beneficiaries at their selected health care facilities.”
Hassan said that individual premium for health insurance at the agency cost was N10,650 annually while the family premium cost N57,000 annually.
“When you break 10,650 into 90 days or 60 days, you will see that you will end up paying N120 in 90 days or N240 which is a reasonable amount a day.’’
In his response, Garba Rabiu, the State Chairman, Tricycle Owners Association, applauded the scheme for health development.
He said due to the nature of their job, many of them were exposed to a lot of dangers as the daily and weekly contribution would enable members to pay with ease.
Rabiu said the poor response to the N10,650 was due to the fact that most of the tricycle riders were not owners of the vehicles but only remit money on daily basis to their owners.
He said some of them were on hire purchase which made it difficult for them to afford.
“With this development of daily and weekly contributions, most of our members will be able to register in order to access the health services.’’
Mr Mohammed Aliyu, Zonal Chairman, Kawo, commended the scheme for the good initiative, adding that it should be sustained and not abandoned.
“This is a good initiative because it will help members pay without difficulties.
“We want them to involve our associations in registering members because presenting their bank accounts individually will not be in order but the association will collect the money and transfer it to the scheme accounts.’’
The leadership made commitment to start as leaders by registering and to sensitise members to the importance of the registration.
