Authorities of the Bayelsa Health Insurance Scheme (BHIS) said there has been a change of the health seeking behavior of Bayelsans since the scheme was launched four years ago.
Executive Secretary of the BHIS, Dr. Zuobemi Agadah made this known in an interview with Nigerdeltaconnect in Yenagoa, saying people of the state now prefer to carry out health checks before commencement of treatment, as opposed to what they were doing in the past.
“The BHIS has changed the health-seeking attitude of Bayelsans in the sense that before now if an individual is feeling headache or fever they just get drugs from any pharmacy but now they go to the hospitals for check up first to know what is causing the headache or fever before taking medication. These are some of the benefits the scheme has brought, the scheme is bringing health care to the people and also expanding it to others”.
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He disclosed that the scheme was built to accommodate up to five million people with the present system, adding that plans are on to implement the part of the law that established the scheme which makes it compulsory for all Bayelsans to enroll.
Dr. Agadah emphasized that the scheme has raised the bar of health care delivery in the state, explaining that before it was launched, health care assessment kept Bayelsa at the bottom of the rating in the South-South but from 2019/2020 the state rose to first.
“The scheme has encouraged women to go to the hospital to get proper health care services, women no longer run away from the hospitals when doctors advise them to undergo cesarean sections because they know the scheme will cover them.
“There has been an increase in hospital attendance with over 485,000 people going to get health care services from the hospitals. With the help of the scheme 3,411 surgeries have been carried out so far, also the scheme has paid over N2.2 billion to hospitals. And so, with all these we can see that the scheme is functioning very well”, he added.
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