By Our Correspondent
The Cross River State Government has inaugurated a Technical Working Group (TWG) for the State Health Insurance Scheme (SHIS).
This follows a mandate earlier given by the federal government which will see the TWG whose membership cuts across Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government as well as donor and developing agencies take charge of the proper designing, planning and implementation of the SHIS christened “Ayadecare.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of raising funds, even though a lot of pledges have been made by the state government” said the deputy governor, Professor Ivara Esu in his remarks before the inauguration at Government House Calabar.
Professor Esu stressed the need for the group to be careful in their job to ensure the Ayadecare takes of smoothly and expressed the state’s gratitude for “partners who have supported the scheme.”
The Health Commissioner Dr. Inyang Asibong who heads the core implementation team formed months ago in Lagos where the implementation roadmap was developed in her remarks said that, “The TWG will under go some trainings to ensure the accuracy of the planning stage and thus to get right the objective which is to achieve a universal health coverage.”
“Health insurance is beyond the health sector, and thus everybody is expected to participate including the citizens to ensure the smooth sailing of the project” said Dr. Sylvester Akande of the United States Agency for International Development Health Finance and Development unit in his remarks.
“The TWG is not a party group but rather a technical working group of people that will bring expertise and technical knowledge to the table to ensure that they get it right” he said.
The Ayadecare act according to the Cross River State government will make healthcare affordable for residents in the state who subscribe to the scheme with a minimum premium of 1,000 Naira per month or 12,000 per annum irrespective of social and financial status.
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