OSHIA: Free Medical Care For Osun Pensioners Starts February – Executive Secretary

The Osun State Health Insurance Agency, (OSHIA), has disclosed that retired civil servants who enrolled into the government-free insurance scheme will start enjoying the benefit by the first day of February.

The Executive Secretary of the Agency, Dr. Rasaq Akindele disclosed this on Friday during the first quarterly service provider forum meeting in Osogbo.

According to Akindele, the agency had been registering the pensioners since last year December, adding that the State Governor, Ademola Adeleke’s aim is for the senior citizens to have access to free medical care.

He appreciated the service providers for working together with the Agency in providing quality health care to Osun residents.

He said, “We started the registration of pensioners on December and we have done that for two months. By February, we want them to start receiving health care free of charge. That is the aim of the state governor.

“We are going to start their care from February 01, and that is just what we have just informed the service providers. So that once the pensioners start coming in, they should be attending to them.”

Speaking on getting people in the informal sector to join the enrollment, Akindele noted that about 8,000 people enrolled in the last three months.

“We are really working hard to get the informal sector to key into the programme. We are using our relationship with the media to let people know the benefits of enrolling into the programme.

“And we have been getting responses. In the last three months, we have had about 8,000 people coming on board,” he added.

The OSHIA Executive Secretary further noted that the agency is planning on automating some of its activities to make it easier for the service provider and the enrollees.

“We are going to automate our business so that we can reduce the transfer of papers and allow service providers and the enrollees to do things easily.”