The Trade Union Congress (TUC), Rivers State Council, has called on the Rivers State Government to introduce a seamless health insurance arrangement that will ensure all civil servants and their dependants are enrolled in the Rivers State Contributory Health Protection Programme (RIVCHPP).
The TUC made the demand when its leadership visited the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of RIVCHPP, Dr Vetty Agala, in Port Harcourt, amid renewed calls for wider coverage of residents under the state’s social health insurance scheme.
Speaking during the visit, TUC Chairman, Comrade Samuel Ogan, commended the management of RIVCHPP for its efforts to expand access to healthcare, stressing that health insurance remained the most sustainable way of protecting workers and their families from the financial burden of illness.
Ogan, however, said workers would be more willing to embrace the scheme if government could develop a system that eliminates visible deductions from their salaries.
He urged the state government to work out a seamless arrangement through which all workers and their dependants could be automatically captured in RIVCHPP plans.
According to him, enrolling the entire civil service into the programme would not only protect workers but also encourage other organisations and individuals to embrace health insurance.
The TUC chairman pledged that the union would engage relevant stakeholders to facilitate the enrolment of workers into RIVCHPP’s health insurance packages.
Earlier, Agala described RIVCHPP as a strategic initiative of Governor Siminalayi Fubara aimed at ensuring financial risk protection for everyone living and working in Rivers State.
She said the programme was designed to make universal health coverage a reality by enabling residents to access quality healthcare without suffering financial hardship or relying on out-of-pocket payments at the point of care.
Agala, who commended the state government for investing in healthcare infrastructure and manpower, lamented the low patronage of health facilities, noting that the challenge was not necessarily a lack of illness but, in many cases, the inability of residents to afford medical care.
She said RIVCHPP was established to bridge that gap and ensure that people, regardless of their social or economic status, could obtain medical attention whenever they needed it.
The RIVCHPP boss disclosed that the agency had developed packages for residents in the formal and informal sectors, vulnerable groups and people living with chronic illnesses.
She also highlighted the agency’s educational sector plans, under which pupils in primary and secondary schools would pay N9,000 annually, while tertiary institution students would pay N12,000 per academic year. She explained that registered students would remain covered during their holidays.
Agala called on labour unions, international oil companies, religious organisations, community and political leaders, as well as well-meaning individuals, to partner RIVCHPP by sponsoring health insurance for members of their communities.
She stressed that government funding alone could not sustain a viable health insurance system, adding that the number of vulnerable residents currently benefiting from the programme remained only a fraction of the population in need.
RIVCHPP Woos UNIPORT Students
In a related development, Agala assured the University of Port Harcourt Medical Students Association (PUMSA) of the agency’s readiness to collaborate with the university’s entire student community to expand access to healthcare.
She gave the assurance when the PUMSA leadership, led by its President, Nelson Fadeh Leteh, visited the agency.
Agala said students constituted a critical segment of the population that RIVCHPP was seeking to bring under its health insurance coverage, stressing that the agency’s objective was to ensure that no resident of Rivers State was excluded from access to quality healthcare.
She said RIVCHPP had begun engagements with relevant authorities to address existing institutional dynamics that could facilitate the enrolment of students, while advising the association to follow due process in presenting its demands.
Earlier, Leteh outlined some of the challenges and hazards confronting medical students, particularly during clinical training, and expressed the association’s desire to enrol its members in RIVCHPP’s programmes.
He said the welfare of medical students remained a priority for the association, noting that the existing health insurance arrangement available to the students was characterised by protocols and bottlenecks that often hindered seamless access to healthcare.
The visits ended with the presentation of RIVCHPP promotional materials to the visiting delegations.
