President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to reverse the general out of pocket payment for healthcare in the country, assuring the masses of a robust healthcare insurance programme, to take off soonest.
The president who made the statement at
the flagging off of the Primary Health Care Revitalisation Programme, as reported by Channels TV , in Kuchigoro, a suburb at the nation’s capital territory, acknowledged the pains the citizens are passing through to access healthcare, and vowed to make the situation better.
The President said: “I am aware that out of pocket payment for health constitutes over 70% of total health expenditure. This is more than the globally recommended 30-40%. However, only less than 5% of the total population is covered by any kind of health insurance or risk protection mechanism which is against the recommended 90% coverage by the World Health Organisation.
“Our vision is to reverse this unsatisfactory situation and better care for the poor and needy”.
During campaigns, the All Progressives Congress, the president’s political party, promised to revitalise one Primary Health Care Centre in each of the political wards in Nigeria.
“Our goal of revitalising the Primary Health Care Centres is to ensure that quality basic health care services are delivered to majority of Nigerians irrespective of their location in the country.
“We shall focus more on the people living in the rural areas and the vulnerable population in our society such as women, children under 5years of age and the elderly in collaboration with national and international partners.
“Let me state clearly, that this revitalisation programme is in alignment with the agenda of our party, the All Progressive Congress (APC). We did promise to provide succour to the poor while at the same time providing for all other segments of the society,” he stated.
