GOVERNOR ENO’S AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE: A VOTE FOR BEFITTING LIVELIHOOD

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GOVERNOR ENO’S AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE: A VOTE FOR BEFITTING LIVELIHOOD

Samuel Ayara

The miracle of seeing a government prefer befitting livelihood to befitting funerals for its citizenry passes Governor Eno as a leadership wonder”Chief Michael Akpabio.

It has been a little over a month since I attended the launch of the Akwa Ibom State Health Insurance Scheme, ARISECare. Most of what my excited mind could carry was an introspection into what Governor Umo Eno’s affordable healthcare meant for our people; the primacy the programme enjoyed in the line of events to mark the state’s 37th anniversary of creation was also a glowing speak about its import.

As interesting as the news of this intervention would hit the ears and minds of those who for far too long have braved the burdens of paying medical bills from pockets, the pessimism about how well the scheme could be trusted did not hit any less. Doubting government has remained one of the ways people preserve their sanity, after all; safe for Governor Eno, who has cut fame for coming through without promises.

Beyond his inviting mien and comely disposition across every rung of the social spectrum, testimonies of the Governor’s decade long commitment to healthcare provision which dates back to his days as the Lead Shepherd of the All Nations Christian Ministry became a consolation to trust this was no façade. This much manifested in the rural healthcare programmes he mounted in the build up to his election, under the group Heal for Umo Eno.

With the launch of ARISECare came a future for needy, vulnerable and socially disadvantaged people, with a vision to achieving universal health coverage by providing financial access to qualitative, affordable, equitable and sustainable healthcare services. Sharply spreading its services to cover the formal and informal sectors as well as vulnerable groups became the pointer that this scheme on arrival wields the ambitious wand of extensive coverage.

The possibility of a state-managed health insurance programme after years of advocacies found its first expression with the governor’s medical interventions, when the State Government earlier in the year sponsored a number of free medical/ surgical programmes across the three senatorial districts. Beyond the outreaches have been the commitment to turning around the infrastructural fortunes of primary healthcare facilities as well as considered employment of medical workers, special grant for resident doctors, among other incentives.

Like the Obamacare in the United States of America, which availed comprehensive healthcare coverage after several decades of exclusive coverage, the ARISECare programme more than answer to years of prayers is interested in growing a healthy population, to scale-up productivity through inclusive coverage. From ensuring every Akwa Ibomite has access to good healthcare services, protecting families from financial hardship of huge medical bills, limiting rise in cost of healthcare services and many other objectives, the State has prepared the launch pad that would redefine wellness and productivity.

With citizen and pocket-friendly premiums for individual, family and group; public sector and organized private sector; and the basic healthcare provision fund among plans on its shelf, the Akwa Ibom State Health Insurance Programme at launch has already enrolled the goodwill of some benefactors. Chief in this group of benefactors is Governor Umo Eno, who true to his compassionate disposition signed-off the premium for junior staff in the state government employ.

Tiuba Nduonofit, Edmund Ekanem and Godwin Asuquo Udo were among early callers on the beneficiary roll. Speaking with them, they not only agreed it is a thoughtful initiative, but described the programme as the biggest stride any government can dare, hence their gratitude to Governor Eno for investing so much in the health of the citizenry, at a time the economy has become a growing concern. In their delight, they held no reservation that ARISECare which they momentarily corrupted as UMOENOCare is an answer to their healthcare needs.

Victoria Henry, a teenage mother of multi-birth infants relieved her experience with getting medications for herself and babies due to her disadvantaged economic situation, but with the launch of ARISECare can now heave a breathe of succor. She is not only grateful to the Governor, but optimistic that in having more hitherto helpless people access help, his kindness and humanitarian disposition would for generations to come, resound in minds and homes he gave a chance at life.

Think these reviews a smokescreen to patronize the government, and tell me what to make of Blessing Umoren, the record holder of the State Health Insurance Programme’s first birth, whose baby lit flames of hope at the Primary Health Centre, Ukana Ikot Ide in Essien Udim LGA, barely two weeks after launch. Her belief in the scheme could not have been better rewarded than when she was handed her daughter, at no expense; especially as she had reportedly insisted on being properly cared for, having shown prove of her enrolment on ARISECare.

It is a dream fulfilled for Chief Michael Akpabio, a community leader in Ukana West, Essien Udim LGA, whose decade-long aspiration for a workable health insurance programme has finally seen the light of day. According to Chief Akpabio the gesture could be all the reprieve artisans who retire to squalor and die without enjoying their labour desired. The miracle of seeing a government prefer befitting livelihood to befitting funerals for its citizenry passes Governor Eno as a leadership wonder.

This smooth and ambitious take-off of the ARISECare scheme, for the Chairman of the State Health Insurance Agency, Dr. Edikan Ekwere, ticks all the right boxes that the idea was well thought, when Governor Eno looked past the financial and bureaucratic implications of prioritizing public healthcare delivery in the face of competing and essential needs. Beyond beckoning on the people to embrace the programme, he has since its launch let no moment slide without an emphatic assurance in their ability to manage the expected surge in enrolment.

While the Agency looks forward to living Governor Umo Eno’s affordable and available healthcare dreams, there appears to be a clarion call on the people to take control of their wellbeing, in such a manner that would make the state scale big on productivity. Little wonders the Executive Secretary of the Agency, Dr. Igbemi Igbemi insistence that with the available options on the plan, Akwa Ibom people must agree we have arrived at that future when out of pocket debits for healthcare have lost its fancy.

More than building health infrastructures to deepen primary healthcare and make secondary, tertiary and quaternary medical services less distressed and more efficient, Governor Umo Eno through ARISECare has modulated a template that would scale up capacity of our health workers and institutions to handle more than basic procedures. When these much is achieved; productivity and wellness scaled, then the State would have successfully replaced the spotlight on befitting burials with befitting livelihoods.

Samuel Ayara writes from Ibong Otoro in Abak LGA

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