……….coalition presents scorecard to agency
By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Towards increasing enrollment into the Health Contributory Scheme aimed at reducing out of pocket expenses and making quality healthcare accessible to citizens of Bauchi State, the State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHCMA) and a Civil Society Coalition known as Bauchi State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (BaSAM), have resolved to carry out a well coordinated advocacy campaign to key state and non actors.
The objective of the proposed advocacy campaign is to galvanize action towards enrollment of more vulnerable target groups into the scheme and trigger the commencement of the formal sector implementation of the scheme in Bauchi State.
The resolve by BASHCMA to collaborate with BaSAM came in the aftermath of a visit by BaSAM to the Agency on Wednesday 30th August 2023.
In his remarks , team lead of BaSAM during the visit, Hussaini Ahmed said they were in BASHCMA to present the new Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Scorecard developed by the BaSAM, with support from USAID IHP that was just disseminated to key stakeholders in the health sector of Bauchi State.
Ahmed disclosed that the scorecard has highlighted the enrollment of citizens of the State into the scheme as slow and then expressed the readiness of BaSAM to support the agency in advocating to Government to create the enabling environment for improved enrollment of citizens into the the health contributory scheme.
The team also said that the Coalition would further carry out their evidence based advocacy to other stakeholders like the state legislators, donor partners, influential members of society etc.
He said that such advocacies may ginger targeted audience into buying healthcare services for the vulnerable members of the society through BASHCMA.
Responding, Dr. Mansur Mustapha Dada thanked BaSAM for the visit and commended their effort in producing the UHC scorecard which he described as a handy document for monitoring milestone in the implementation of health contributory scheme in the state.
Dr. Dada said that with over 60 percent of the state population living below the poverty line, the need to enroll that segment of the population into the scheme should be a priority for all stakeholders both within and outside Government circles.
He said BaSAM could play a significant role in mobilizing the State, through advocacy, to fast track deductions and remittance of funds from the formal sector that will mainstream government workers and their families into the health contributory scheme of the State.
The ES further suggested to BaSAM to also consider carrying out advocacies to elected politicians, corporate organizations and the diaspora communities with a view to having such targeted individuals and organizations buying healthcare services for the vulnerable members of their respective communities.
According to Dr. Dada, the current amount of money being paid across all States by the Federal Government under the Basic Healthcare Provision Funds (BHCPF) is grossly inadequate to cater for the increasing number of vulnerable groups, not only in Bauchi State alone, but across the entire country.
He said that there is the need for influential personalities, philanthropists, elected politicians, corporate bodies, donor partners, diaspora communities etc, to complement government efforts towards attaining UHC by assisting in enrolling citizens into health contributory scheme.
Dr. Dada said that the immediate challenge of the Agency at the moment is the inability of the State Government to implement the deduction of state workers 1 percent salary and remittance of same to officially kickstart the informal sector implementation of the scheme.
Highlights of the visit was the official presentation of the BaSAM developed UHC scorecard that covered the period between January-June 2023.