Health Insurance: Mai Mala Buni is working toward achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals on good health and well-being, by Baba Abdullahi Machina
The Sustainable Development Goals, which provide and share a blueprint for peace and prosperity on the planet now and in the future, are the global goals that the United Nations Organization members’ state endorsed in 2015.
The Sustainable Development Goals, an urgent call to action by rich and developing nations working together on a global scale, are at the centre of it. They understood that to eradicate poverty and other forms of deprivation, policies that enhance health and education, lessen inequality, and promote economic growth are all necessary.
Achieving the third and best goal, The Sustainability of the Development Goals depends on guaranteeing healthy lives and fostering well-being at all ages. Every stage of life, beginning at the beginning, calls for the importance of one’s health and well-being. This objective covers all key areas of public health concern, including access to quality, cheap medications and vaccinations for everyone as well as reproductive, maternity, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, infectious and non-communicable diseases, and universal health coverage. SDG 3 focuses on important targets that improve the general health of a nation’s people to minimize needless suffering from preventable diseases and early mortality.
Priority areas are those with the largest disease burdens and underserved populations and regions. Goal 3 also asks for increased spending on health funding, risk management, and research and development. The Yobe State Contributory Health Management Board was established in 2019 as a result of a series of advocacy efforts and stakeholder engagement by the Network of Yobe State Civil Society Organizations, a conglomeration of more than 200 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), National and International Organizations operating in Yobe State that singly and collectively work to achieve the SDGs around good health and well-being.
The Agency was established to expedite the implementation of universal health coverage, reduce spending, increase efficiency, equity, and effectiveness in the delivery of healthcare services, and purchase high-quality, reasonably-priced healthcare services for all Yobe State residents. It also serves as an institutional framework for bettering advanced health financing through contribution, premium, or taxation.
In addition to the aforementioned organization, the Yobe State Government, under the leadership of the Honourable Mai Mala Buni, established the Yobe State Drug and Medical Consumables Management Agency, as a result of the advocacy of civil society organizations with development partners.
This organization is in charge of regulating, coordinating, manufacturing, and procuring high-quality and reasonably priced medicines and medical supplies in the state to ensure the realization of the Health Universe.
Following the establishment of the two aforementioned agencies as evidence of the Yobe State government’s commitment to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations on promoting good health and well-being in the state, the government approved the allocation of $200 million for a social equity program that aimed to provide access to quality healthcare services for accident victims, pregnant women, and children under the age of five.
Additionally, the Primary Healthcare Management Agency and Yobe State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency launched the Free Drug Program to address out-of-pocket costs by acquiring and distributing high-quality drugs to selected health facility centres throughout Yobe State. The Free Drug Program aims to increase the uptake of maternal newborn and child health services by addressing out-of-pocket expenses.
While providing clinical care to 700 sickle cell carriers and enrolling 70,000 residents in the expanded free healthcare delivery program through the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund for those affected by the insurgency and unable to access healthcare in rural communities in Yobe, the Agency targets 3 million informal enrollees for the Social Equity Program while under the formal sector, thousands of the civil servant were enrolled with the contributions of 3.25 per cent workers’ salaries and 1.75 per cent the form and local government workers that will go along away in fast-tracking the implementation of the UHC under the Yobe State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (YSCHMA).
Every stage of life, starting from the beginning, is vital for one’s health and well-being. This objective covers all key areas of public health concern, including access to quality, cheap medications and vaccinations for everyone as well as reproductive, maternity, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, infectious and non-communicable diseases, and universal health coverage.
Two indicators Indicator 3.2.1 Under-five Mortality Rate and Indicator 3.2.2 Neonatal Mortality Rate track progress toward Goal 3 as it pertains to children under the worldwide custodianship of UNICEF. Additionally, UNICEF is a co-custodian of Indicator 3.1.2, which measures the percentage of births attended by qualified medical personnel, and Indicator 3.b.1, which measures the percentage of the target population who has received all of the vaccinations prescribed by their national program.
TARGET 3.8 Achieve universal health coverage for all people, including financial risk protection, access to high-quality essential medical services, and access to critical medications and vaccinations that are quality, affordable, safe, and effective. Key are the following, which Buni has proven throughout the past three years of his administration: The Yobe State government upgrade, rehabilitated and constructed primary healthcare centres in almost 138 political wards out of 178 to ensure the rural population, which made up the majority of the state population, had access to quality healthcare service delivery across the state. UNICEF has four key asks that encourage all governments to strengthen primary healthcare systems to reach every child to ensure healthy lives and promote the well-being of all children.
Focus on mother, infant, and child survival; give priority to children’s and adolescents’ physical and mental health; and support measures to lessen the effects of natural disasters, complicated events, and demographic changes on children and families. Moreover, the Yobe State government in its commitment to Malaria in the state a preventable deathly disease with other partners have distributed over 2 million Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets across the State to prevent and eliminate cases of Malaria which according to data malaria contributes to 30% of childhood deaths and 117 of maternal death in Nigeria and Yobe among the state with record.
Due to the implementation of the Universal Healthcare Coverage for Free Health Financing and Social Equity Program, increases in budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Health and Human Services from 2b in 2021 to 18 in the 2023 budget that was recently signed into law by the Governor H.E Maimala Buni, the Yobe State government has made significant progress on the mantra of Continuity, consolidation and innovation of the previous administration toward the global Sustainable Development Goals of Good Health and Well-Being. Any governor that is interested in the development of his or her state and the nation as a whole should prioritize investing in high-quality, inexpensive, and accessible healthcare, the Yobe State government should be praised for a job well done in the health sector and other states should model themselves after Yobe State in the implementation of the Universal Health Coverage (UHL) to achieved United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, good health and wellbeing.
Baba Abdullahi Machina writes from Machina, Yobe State and can be reached via +2348034164908.
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