Obembe, who spoke in Ayedun, Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti state, during the flag off of the community’s health insurance scheme, advised the federal government to encourage communities to embrace this scheme.

To make the scheme practicable, Obembe urged the federal government to increase its expenditure for the health sector from the present 5 percent to fifteen percent as pledged by African leaders in the Year 2000 in order to achieve universal health coverage in Nigeria.

Ayedun community became the first town in the South West geo-political zone to have the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since June 6, 2005, when it was flagged off by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obembe said, “The health facilities should be equally distributed, brain drain should be curtailed by making the facilities available in Nigeria, while private health facilities should be integrated in the service delivery in Nigeria. States and Local Governments should embrace health insurance.”

Addressing the gathering, the Acting Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Mr. Femi Akingbade, said in order to achieve the presidential order that every Nigerian should be captured in the universal health insurance scheme, the NHIS had developed an “effective and efficient community based social health insurance programme to capture over 70 percent of Nigerian population.”

He said part of the approaches adopted by the NHIS in the implementation of the Community Based Health Insurance programmes include among others, taking cognisance of community’s ownership, social solidarity inherent in the Nigerian people, their culture and the various socio-economic groupings in the country.
While commending Ayedun community for the feat, Akingbade said the launch of NHIS in the community would create a platform for “reaching the unreached.”

He assured that the NHIS is working assiduously to ensure that the vulnerable groups in the society have access to the health insurance scheme.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees, National Launching of Ayedun Community-Based Social Health Insurance Programme, Mr. Dapo Adelusi, said presently the number of enrollees for the scheme in the community stood at 4,977. He called on other communities in the state to be part of the programme in order to ensure that people’s health becomes “sufficiently assured.”