Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Executive Secretary, Oyo State Health Insurance Agency (OYSHIA), Dr. Sola Akande,, has said trade by barter system was introduced into the health insurance scheme in the state, to ensure petty traders and artisans have access to the scheme.
He disclosed this during an outreach on health insurance policy with artisans, traders and people in the informal sector, in Eruwa, headquarters of Ibarapa East Local Government Area.
During the outreach, market leaders, religious and community leaders, health and government officials were enlightened on the need to enlist for the scheme instead of out-of-pocket medical treatment, which is always expensive.
Akande explained that the trade by barter system would enable petty traders exchange their goods of equal monetary worth of the health insurance policy they prefer, adding that the exchange could be done in instalments.
“Trade by barter is one of the innovations that we introduced to ensure more people are enlisted into the scheme. To pick up one health insurance policy, if you cannot afford to pay the whole money at once, we can help you.
“You can commence with daily payments like daily contributions. Our staff will come to you for the contribution, and when it is up to the amount specified for a policy, you will be enrolled. Under the trade by barter, especially for our rural people, you can bring in palm oil, and we’ll value it, take it to the marketing unit, then they will sell it and we’ll get the money.
“We want to look for all possible means to make this convenient for the people. It’s not that the people don’t have money, they are spending money everyday. We are going to help them by going to their markets and their shops. You can’t expect a woman selling vegetables to go to the bank and deposit money for health insurance.
“If they do a daily contribution of N50, they will make up their N8,000 payment in four months, and then, they begin to enjoy the scheme. It’s not that people don’t want to do health insurance, but, their knowledge about it is poor. That’s why we’re doing this. We have done it at Iseyin, Oyo, Ibadan, and this is for Eruwa, in Ibarapa.
“We have civil servants in the net already, but, we’re reaching far more than that, and that’s why we are trying our best possible to get the informal sector into the net,” he said.