No fewer than hundred residents in Ajegunle, a suburb area in Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area, pay N50 daily to access healthcare, the Chief Project Officer of Orange Health Initiative, Dr Kunle Megbuwawon, has disclosed.
Megbuwawon disclosed this while speaking on the health intervention scheme organised by the initiative three years ago to improve the quality of lives of people living in Ajegunle communities.
In his account, he decried the poor state of health of the residents, identifying hypertension, diabetics, arthritis as the dominant sicknesses in the communities.
He blamed the causes of infectious diseases on the dirty environment, saying it breeds stagnant water, which attracts huge mosquitoes.
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“Then chronic diseases because of stress and eating habits, we are consuming a lot of salt; people are having hypertension, diabetics,” he added.
Based on the country’s economic conditions, he said some of Ajegunle residents cannot afford to get drugs and even pay for healthcare, hence the need to introduce a micro health insurance scheme.
“But we know that Universal Health Coverage is that everybody should be able to come to the hospital, so we started our own innovative health insurance scheme. We call it Ajo health, riders for health, Agba health.
“Our Ajo health scheme, as of today, we have 100 people who have registered. The scheme is novel and innovative because it is different from people paying one year of health insurance like they pay on Lagos State insurance.
“So instead of paying N40,000 for health insurance, we told them to pay N50 per day, that is N1500 per month. So, they are paying every day, saving their money with us. As they pay, we remove N50 per day for their insurance,” he said.
He revealed the plan to start an emergency fund for those patients who may not be able to pay for healthcare services, calling for support from both the private and public sectors.
