The Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA) has called on Lagos State Farmers Communities to embrace the state health scheme (LSHS), which aims at making adequate healthcare available to all classes of residents of the state.
Addressing leaders of various farmers societies on Tuesday at the Lagos State Agricultural Complex, Training Centre, Oko-Oba, Lagos, LASHMA’s General Manager Dr Emmanuella Zamba said the scheme is aimed at ensuring that everyone living in Lagos has access to qualitative healthcare without having to beg to finance their treatment in any hospital of their choice.
Mrs Zamba who was represented by Mr Rotimi Olatunji, said LASHMA came to the farmers groups as part of continued sensitisation of all strata of the state with as view to getting everyone living in the state enlisted on the health scheme.
She said as either the producers and processors of the foods eaten by residents, farmers are critical to the success of the scheme, thus the need for LASHMA to meet with them in order to bring to their awareness, opportunities that abound in the state-backed health financing scheme that is available to everyone living in the state.
She said as part of its advocacy, the agency has interpreted all its messages into Pidgin English, and all the local languages, in order to ensure that many more people enroll on the programme.
She said an individual only needed to pay N8,500 per annum for an individual account while a family, made up of father, mother and four children who are under 18 years of age, would sign into the scheme with N40,000 yearly premium. Any individual above 18, who loves to be on the scheme would have to pay N8,500.
The amount, she further stated, covers not only consultation, tests, minor surgeries, as well as medications and drugs. She said over 100 hospitals both public and private are already signed into the programme and any beneficiary can enjoy medicare in any of the hospitals upon the presentation of their LSHS Policy Number.
Olatunji, who is the agency’s Head of Business Development and Marketing, said the programme is not about illness, but how to continue to ensure that everyone who ought to enjoys maximum health and wellbeing through the health insurance financing model.
Olatunji added that contrary to the other health insurance schemes, the LSHS is a social programme that is not driven by profit, but by need to ensure the greatest wellbeing for the greatest number.
He said the agency can work at achieving a flexible paying pattern for any group or association and individuals who are desirous of enrolling in the programme as it would promote their health and wellbeing without turning them into a parasite.
Olatunji said while not praying for illness, the beauty of enrolling on the scheme is that it ensures that the burden of health financing is shared by all rather than having to bear the burden of ill health and wellness all alone if they do not have a health scheme.
He said the only thing needed is the enrollee’s LASRA Number, or other forms of identification, if such do not have the state’s residents’ identification number and utility bill. He added that upon completion of the process and payment of the premium, the enrollee would be given a personal policy number.
The Programme Manager, Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority (LSADA) Mr Rasheed Ejalonibu, commended the agency for bringing the programme to farmers in the state. He said farmers, being the critical members of the society, need such facilities that would ensure their health are in top shape, and at the least cost.
Ejalonibu said with the LSHS, it is not until one has health challenges that he can seek and enjoy healthcare services. He assured the government that the farmers’ association would massively partner with the agency because it keyed into a major pillar of their objectives, which is ensuring the wellbeing of all members.
One of the beneficiaries Mrs Bukola Oladimeji, who enrolled even as an expectant mother and enjoyed the scheme, said she was discharged free from the hospital after delivery of triplets all due to the health scheme.
“Maybe I would have been abandoned at the hospital or my husband would have had to be begging the government and other philanthropists for assistance to raise the discharge fees for me, but surprisingly, I was discharged from the hospital and left home without paying a dime, just because I enrolled for the individual policy which costs me only N8,500 only.
Another beneficiary, Mr Kamson Adebowale, who lives in Ikorodu, said he ran into the LASHMA agents by accidents, and within a month of enrolling on the scheme, he had a surgical procedure for hernia, which without the policy could have cost him N150,000 to finance.