A special training programme for officials that will implement the Delta State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme in the 25 local councils has kicked started in the state capital of Asaba.

A total of 75 trainees, made up of primary health care coordinators and medical record officers from the local councils are scheduled to attend the ICT-based training organised which is being undertaken by 25 experts from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Abuja.

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, explained at the opening ceremony that the scheme remained dear to his heart, noting that it was the greatest complement to the “Prosperity for all Deltans’ development mantra of his administration because health is the basis for wealth and prosperity.

Represented by the secretary to the state government (SSG), Festus Ovie Agas, Okowa said that his “administration places high premium on the contributory health scheme”, a commitment that saw the speedy presentation of the necessary bill that midwifed the Act and subsequent establishment of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission within the first few months of his government.

“The scheme is designed to take care of especially the vulnerable in the society; it helps the people who register to avoid financial shocks, which could happen when people are forced, for example, to go to moneylenders when they take ill”, the governor said, stressing that his administration was irrevocably committed to ensuring the success of the health scheme.

He charged the trainees to give maximum concentration to the exercise, noting that the NHIS, which is handling the training with over 20 of its personnel, would continue to support the state health scheme.

The chairman of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission, Dr. Isaac Akpoveta, noted that “the scheme is a concept that protects the individual from financial disaster” because anyone could fall ill when they least expected and when they might not have the means of paying their medical bills.

Akpoveta advised the people to embrace the health insurance scheme by registering at their respective local government areas as soon as the pilot registration programme commenced .