Kaduna Wants Legislation Mandating Health Insurance Prior To Marriage

The Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KADCHMA) has called for a law to be enacted that will ensure that couples are enrolled in health insurance as a pre-qualification for marriage. This is, as the body, said to provide free basic healthcare services to 124,858 poor and vulnerable people who are living in the state.

Abubakar Hassan, the Director-General of the agency, had stated this during a two-day media roundtable that was funded by ‘Save the Children Nigeria’ held in Zaria, and said that medical checkups were not only advised before marriage, but enrolling in a health insurance scheme would also help to guarantee a blissful union and avoid any unwanted, unneeded health, stress and problems later in marriage.

In his opinion, it would be a wonderful thing for the Kaduna State Government to enact a law that will ensure that couples are enrolled in a health insurance scheme before qualifying for marriage. The Director-General disclosed that 79,329 people would be accessing the basic minimum package of health services as defined by the National Health Insurance Scheme, while 45,529 people were being enrolled under the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund.

He explained that for those who were enrolled under the BHCPF, the state government would provide a 25 percent counterpart fund, while the NHIS would provide a 75 per cent from the BHCPF based on the defined benefit package. Mr. Hassan added that the authority has so far enrolled a total of 514,265 people in the state health insurance scheme.

He pointed out that 382,593 people were enrolled under the formal sector, 3,713 people were enrolled under the informal sector, 986 people were enrolled under the Tertiary Students Health Insurance Programme, and 2,115 people were enrolled under the pensioner’s scheme. He said that the aim of KADCHMA is to build an operational strategy to ensure that none is left behind healthcare in Kaduna State.

Olukotun Amabel, the Advocacy and Campaigns Assistant of ‘Save the Children Nigeria Kaduna,’ said that the target is to protect the rights of the children particularly with Health and Education.

Comrade Nicholas Dekera, the representative of Nigeria Union of Journalists (Kaduna State Council), said that the union would continue to partner with KADCHMA to ensure a reduction in maternal mortality in the state and that the message gets to people in the rural areas.