By Babatunde Tiamiyu
No fewer than 23,000 retirees have been enrolled into the Osun Health insurance Agency, OSHIA.
According to OSHIA, this is part of the Osun State government’s effort to ensure that retired civil servants receive their health benefits after their mandatory service years.
The Executive Secretary of the Agency, Dr Rasaq Akindele who said this at an event tagged “The News Point” put in place by Osun State correspondents Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists, said more people will be enrolled into the program.
He said OSHIA is an Agency saddled with the responsibility of ensuring provision of health insurance scheme to the citizens of the state saying that the enrollment for retirees was a continuous one.
While saying many people have benefited from the Agency since Governor Ademola Adeleke took over the leadership of the state, Akindele disclosed that enrollment of pensioners is digitalised to make it easier to access facilities for their health issues .
Dr Akindele who lamented the rate of ignorance of people about OSHIA said the Agency has been carrying out Enlightenment programs for people on their health issues, but that many are yet to understand how the Agency operates .
Dr Akindele who said the Agency will continue an aggressive awareness campaign for the people of the state hinted deployment of many OSHIA staff to all the local government council areas of the state for effective mobilization of pensioners and accurate gathering of retirees statistics .
The agency since his resumption in office has been offsetting accumulated debts inherited adding that the Governor has been of great assistance to the Agency especially in the area of funds .
The OSHIA boss who blamed the causes of some few recorded deaths of patients from surgical operation on ignorance and lack of knowledge on how things work in the Agency and observed that such things have been addressed and made simple for people to access .
“We have code which anybody can go through our website to get information and get all access to health insurance scheme program .
We will continued to do out best to ensure that every citizens of this state benefit and cue into this program because health is wealth.
