Universal Health Coverage
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 includes Universal Health Coverage as one of its key deliverables: access to promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services of sufficient quality without financial hardship.
World leaders agreed in 2015 to achieve UHC by 2030. UHC is also rooted in the WHO constitution of 1948, declaring health a fundamental human right, and the Health for All agenda set by the Alma Ata declaration in 1978.
Delta State journey
The Executive Bill to establish the Commission was transmitted to the Delta State House of Assembly on 22 June 2015, passed on 9 December 2015, and signed into law by Governor Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa on 4 February 2016.
The Law established the DSCHC, the Delta State Contributory Health Scheme, related governance structures and a Governing Board to regulate, supervise, implement and ensure effective administration of the mandatory scheme.
Scheme progress
The DSCHC commenced service delivery on 1 January 2017 and has provided service to 1,995,816 enrollees in 7 years.
The Commission currently reports 510 accredited public and private healthcare facilities for primary and secondary healthcare services across Delta State.
Awards and knowledge sharing
In 2017, the Scheme won Outstanding Healthcare Program of the Year at the Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award.
In 2018, the Scheme won an award as the state with the most people covered under the State Social Health Insurance Scheme, focused on poor and vulnerable populations under the World Bank/FG Save One Million Lives Program.
DSCHC continues to support other states through best-practice experience sharing and capacity enhancement for health insurance programmes.
