by Christiana Gokyo, Jos
PLATEAU STATE – The Director-General, Plateau State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (PLASCHEMA), Dr. Fabong Jemchang, has said the equity health care plan enrolled 34,294 people, while the formal healthcare plan has 11,031 principal with 28,597 departments.
He said, the agency was established to provide access and affordable healthcare services to Plateau people, adding that, the informal healthcare plan has 27 pharmacies, 5 laboratories, 1 optometry general and cottage hospitals, with 3 tertiary institutions.
He stated that, the state governor, Simon Lalong, also initiated the agency to enable Plateau State achieve universal health coverage. He disclosed this on Tuesday in Jos during an interface with journalists at Crest Hotel, Jos.
Dr. Jecmhang said, the sole aim of the agency is to ensure that individuals gain access to affordable, equitable, timely and quality healthcare with financial security for all residents in the state, irrespective of their socio-economic status.
He stressed that, “The Agency is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that all people have access to needed promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitation health services of sufficient quality, while ensuring that people do not suffer financial hardship when paying for services.”
“The agency has developed various programmes to cover different segments of the society, which includes Plateau State Equity Health Plan, consisting of children, pregnant women, and elderly greater than 60 years,” he said.
He noted that the Formal Health Plan consists of uniform men and public sector employees, while there is Informal Health Plan and Private Health Plan.
Dr. Jemchang explained that “The level of accessibility to this healthcare includes the primary healthcare services, which is at the point of entry; the secondary takes referrals from primary, while the tertiary takes care of all the referrals from primary and secondary. The principal enrollee and his spouse with children below the age of eighteen years can have access to the healthcare services.”
The PLASCHEMA D-G stressed that, the scope of coverage includes all students in tertiary institutions, all retirees, all pupils of public and private primary schools, all informal sectors, who enrolled, and all voluntary contributors.
“The agency is poised to strengthen health financing by pooling resources and through strategic purchasing, mitigate high out-of-pocket expenditure,” he said, adding, “PLASCHEMA has the lowest deduction rates compared to other schemes in the country, and Plateau State has demonstrated massive will for it.”
