CRSHIA Fostering Stakeholder Cooperation To Improve Healthcare Access For Cross Riverians
By Ebi COLLINS
The new looked management of the Cross River State Health Insurance Agency (CRSHIA) recently constituted by Governor Bassey Otu has indeed hit the ground running with renewed vigour, with the overarching public benefit of universal health coverage in state its prime priority.
Led by its Director General, Dr Godwin Iyala - a serial achiever and astute social insurance guru - the CRSHIA team, upon assumption of office, immediately commenced stakeholder engagements with the view of addressing gaps limiting insurance efficiency, as well as looking for possible ways to expand the scheme's frontiers, knowing the high premium the Governor Otu-led administration place on the health and well-being of the citizenry.
The Health Insurance team in its series of engagements has since visited relevant Ministries, Departments, Agencies, World Health Organization (WHO), Implementing Partners, nongovernmental organizations. The State Ministry of Health, State Primary Health Care Development Agency, just to mention a few, the has already had interfaces with in recent days.
During these interfaces with multi-stakeholders, the CRSHIA team's campaign has consistently centred on how best residents of the state can access quality and affordable healthcare without incurring catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditures, through pooled resources, an objective the Iyala-led team is pursuing with unbridled determination.
From the productive engagements, heads of offices so far visited have pledged their support to the Health Insurance Agency on the objective of entrenching universal health coverage in the state.
Within this period, Courtesy visit by Excellent Care Education Welfare Scheme (ECEWS), a nongovernmental organization had also sought partnership with CRSHIA concerning insurance coverage for the vulnerable group with tuberculosis and HIV.
Euginia Odey, teacher from Yala local government area and enrollee of the scheme, gave an eloquent testimony on the economic impact of health insurance on her and household, having access healthcare services without suffering financial hardship. Similarly, Mrs. Rita Paul Edem, another beneficiary, testified to a successful Cesarean Section through referral from primary to secondary facility, with next to nothing being paid for the life-saving services.
It is hoped that, with government's political will and stakeholders working round the clock, the next few years, Cross River would become a reference point for universal health coverage among the comity of Nigerian states.
