Ogun to include undergraduates in health insurance scheme

The Ogun government says it is working toward engaging students of tertiary institutions on the need to key into its health insurance scheme.

Tomi Coker, the commissioner for health, spoke on Thursday at the activation meeting with stakeholders on the ‘Tertiary Institutions Social Health Insurance Programme (TISHIP)’ in Abeokuta.

NAN reports that the meeting was co-hosted with Abayomi Arigbabu, the commissioner for education, science and technology.

Coker said the move was to ensure that the students did not go through the stress of using their funds to access quality healthcare in the state.

The meeting had in attendance, heads of tertiary institutions — both government-owned and private-owned — deans of student affairs, and representatives of the student union government (SUG).

Coker said the undergraduates were an important aspect of the scheme, “who incidentally have not been benefitting from it.”

She said the present administration in the state had invested heavily in healthcare across the three tiers of the sector.

The commissioner said incorporating the students would enable them to benefit from the scheme both on-campus and off-campus at any time of the day or night.

Coker said the government had since engaged artisans, market men, and women, as well as community development associations (CDAs), among others, in a bid to promote the drive toward achieving universal health coverage.

According to her, Dapo Abiodun-led government is making efforts to build a solid foundation for the health sector which unborn generations will benefit from.

“I want to plead with you to come up with ideas and suggestions that will enhance the workability of this TISHIP. If our undergraduates are on board, we will have little or no cause to worry during any health emergency,” she said.

“The scheme has been designed to allow for referral, from the primary to secondary and tertiary levels of care.

“Any student of Ogun state does not have to pay out-of-pocket to access quality healthcare considering that the governor has provided equipment, good infrastructure and human resource for health, which are not always available to students.”

On his part, Arigbabu said the initiative would ensure that students of tertiary institutions were properly taken care of both on campus and off campus in case of any emergency.

He said the activation meeting was meant to sensitise the heads of tertiary institutions and the leaders of the students’ union to seek their consent.

He said that the entire population of students of each school of higher learning could be better educated by the attendees of the meeting on the benefits of the scheme.