Newsfront Online …Telling the Public as it is
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has directed the management of the State Health Insurance Scheme to commence the registration of all journalists in the state.
The special adviser on media projects to the governor, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, disclosed gave the information during the inauguration of the newly elected executive members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Edo State.
The governor also said the policy covers primary and secondary health care. Obaseki said: “Registered journalists under the scheme will be eligible to access health care at both public and private hospitals in the state. A card would be issued to individual journalists at the point of registration. The card also covers certain members of the journalist’s family.”
All members of the exco were re-elected for a second term tenure of three years. The re-elected executives include; Mrs. Nefishetu Yakubu (chairman), Gabriel Enogholase (vice-chairman), Osaigbovo Iguobaro (secretary) and Patrick Ahanor (assistant secretary). Others are Idris Momoh (treasurer), Barnabas Uzosike (financial secretary) and Francis Onoiribholo (auditor).
Crusoe said: “With the health insurance card, you (journalist) can walk into hospitals and get treatment almost free. “The essence of building a hospital is to give people access to health care… and that is what Governor Obaseki is doing.”
He dismissed insinuations that the ongoing reconstruction of the 100-year-old Central Hospital buildings in Benin City had been earmarked for a motor park. He said: “The facility is no longer much of a hospital because most of the structures have decayed. “As a government, we don’t think it’s wise to keep derelict infrastructure for sentiment so that people will not be angry.”
(leadership.ng)
