The Project Coordinator, Orange Care Initiative, Dr. Kunle Magbuwawon, has faulted the National Health Insurance Scheme for excluding the care for persons above 60 years.
Magbuwawon made the call at the World Eldest Day seminar and screening organised by the Healthcare Initiative in Lagos. No fewer than 1,000 elderly persons attended the event.
According to him, the elderly need health insurance scheme because they are vulnerable to age-related diseases, such as glaucoma, diabetes, hypertension and kidney diseases.
He said, “Once you retire from government employment, your health insurance policy expires. The scheme is skewed because that is even the age that they need free health care most. That is when they may start to develop high blood pressure, high blood sugar or cholesterol levels and they will need to be going to the hospital regularly. The government must go back to the table and rework the models presently.”
Magbuwawon, who noted that Nigeria had no dedicated hospital for the elderly, noted that this had resulted in the shortage of specialists in geriatric medicine.
He, therefore, urged groups, especially non-governmental organisations, to redirect their health care initiatives to target those above 60.
According to him, this is to fill the health care gap for the elderly in the country.
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