Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Nwifuru, has said that 137,133 citizens of the state have so far benefited from the state Health Insurance Agency under his administration.

Nwifuru made the disclosure during an enlarged press briefing held at the Women Development Centre (WDC) Abakaliki stating his administration readiness to extend the free health care services to all Ebonyians.

The governor represented by the state Commissioner for Health, Moses Ekuma break down the beneficiaries to include: Children under five-42,088, Pregnant women -20,786, Elderly -15,644, People with Disability-1,210, Indigent-41,783, Formal Sector (Onwa Health Care)8,061, Informal Sector -2,214, Tiship-5,347 and Active enrolment in 2024-86,000.

He noted that the administration met 34,000 registered beneficiaries of the scheme with poor equipment and personnel in general hospitals, but said a lot has been done to ensure all political wards are enrolled in the scheme.

“When this administration started, we discovered that those things that will make the health sector meet its desired objective were not there; no personnel, medical equipment and consumables.

“Before now, we had 34,000 people enrolled in the Ebonyi Insurance scheme and presently have 137,133 Ebonyians that have enrolled within the two years, and you know that you can’t talk about universal health without talk about health insurance because the reason our people avoid hospital is because of lack of money. It has also increased the number of our women that enrolled for antenatal care, indigents, students, and children,” he said.

He commended the state governor’s wife, Mrs Mary-maudlin Nwifuru, for the role her pet project, Better Health for Rural Women and Children (BERWO) have achieved in reaching the downtrodden in the rural communities and called on concerned individuals to support the government efforts to make health care free in the state.

“As His Excellency is enrolling citizens of the state, Her Excellency is also enrolling many people including vulnerable children, sickle cell patients, malaria, and several other patients.

“The agency has also sought funds to enroll HIV patients. This means that every HIV patient is now free to receive treatment including malaria, diabetes, antenatal care and others. Before now, they were only given HIV drugs free, but every treatment is now free as such a person should look for money for other of his needs and not for health issues.

“Some stakeholders during the summit of the ministry, philanthropists after the programme enrolled many people and that has helped reduce burden on them and I ask other stakeholders to adopt the idea by enrolling people around you as to make life easier for them,” he said.