The Abia State Government has launched the Formal Sector Health Insurance Scheme to provide accessible and affordable healthcare for Abia workers and their dependants.
This is even as Governor Alex Otti renewed the ban on the use of schools, religious centres and markets for medical outreach in the state.
Otti who spoke in Umuahia on Thursday during the formal launch of the health initiative, explained that his vision for healthcare delivery was to build a responsive system with dynamic response to the needs of the people in urban and local population.
He declared that nobody in Abia would be denied access to healthcare services because of financial incapacity, adding that the scheme would checkmate incidents of self-medication among the poor and vulnerable population.
He further said that the incidents of maternal and neonatal mortalities would be cut down through the formal sector health insurance scheme.
Otti, who also launched the Abia State government's medical outreach program for the poor and vulnerable population, said the program would abolish the era of medical programmes and outreaches in open fields, market squares and community halls.
“I would like to use this opportunity to reiterate the ban placed by the State Government on the use of public schools, markets, religious centres and other unauthorised locations for medical outreach,” Otti said.
DAILY POST recalls that many people who received free medical treatments in Abriba, Ohafia LGA in November 2024, became unconscious and were rushed to different hospitals where they were later revived through the intervention of the Abia government.
