The Bayelsa State Health Insurance Scheme (BHIS) at the weekend said the high inflation rates in the country is one of the major challenges to expected health care services to the beneficiaries of the scheme.

The structured social health insurance commenced operations in 2017.

The BHIS aims to give adequate health insurance covers to all civil servants in the state but was later extended to both informal sectors across the state.

Dr. Zuoboemi Agadah, Executive Secretary at BHIS, said these while addressing members of the Federated Correspondents? Chapel (FCC) of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Bayelsa State Council during the Correspondents? Forum.

Agadah said that any country that do not have control over the pharmaceutical companies and technology as well as inflation cannot achieve universal health coverage.

He said many countries that achieved universal health coverage have control over their inflation, adding that the high inflationary trends reported in the country makes planning and operations difficult.

?While the inflation is high the deductions still remain what we were deducting since 2017 to 2024. How do we cope? The issues of inflation, pharmaceutical companies, technologies and others are posing serious challenges, but we are still rendering the same quality services.

?While we face inflation and high cost of drugs and other inputs, we cannot tell the people that are contributing to contribute more. As the inflation is high the hospitals are also telling us that what we are paying them can no longer be obtainable. When we designed this program in 2017 Augmentin was less than N1,000 but in 2024 the same drug is about N25,000 while some are even selling it for N30,000. No government can manage this type of thing.

?We are planning to set up a Central Drugs Distribution system, a drug management organization so that they can get drugs from major distribution centers or direct from manufacturers. So, one the drug will be cheaper, secondly, all of us are sure of quality so that any drug that gives problems, we know who is to hold responsible. Not that every vendor will be supplying drugs at his own cost and the rest, so that all our hospitals will go there to get drugs in the state.

?So, our challenge is, we still need more money so that we can take care of more people?.

He explained that the BHIS has over 200,000 enrollees receiving free healthcare from 2017 to 2024, comprising the formal and informal sectors.

Agadah said that civil servants pay two percent of their salaries as monthly premiums while those in informal sectors pay N2,000 monthly.

?When you come into the BHIS, we don?t bother about your status or financial state. We equalize everybody for the benefits?, he said.

According to him, the BHIS has 203 accredited hospitals, 97 hospitals and 106 health centers across the state.

He said that the scheme has significantly enhanced the healthcare seeking attitude of Bayelsa people by tackling the challenge of finance as enrolled do not have to spend money to pay for healthcare beyond the marginal monthly contributions they make to BHIS.

Update news