Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has directed the State Health Insurance Commission to commence the registration of working journalists in the state into the State Health Insurance Scheme (EDO-HIS).
Crusoe Osagie, the Special Adviser on Media Projects to the governor, disclosed this over the weekend during the inauguration of the newly elected executive members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council.
He said the policy would cover primary and secondary health care and that under the scheme registered journalists would be eligible to access health care at both public and private hospitals in the state.
He said, “A card would be issued to individual journalists at the point of registration, and this card also covers for certain members of the journalist family”.
According to him, journalist and their dependents would be able to walk into hospitals and get their treatment almost free with the health insurance card.
He also said the state government had concluded plans to extend the Ossiomo Power Plant to the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.
On his part, the state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Festus Alenkhe, while commending the governor for the gesture, said the scheme will help improve the health status of media practitioners in the state.
