Despite the cost-push inflation that has made healthcare almost unaffordable for most Nigerians lately, many states are ignoring the opportunity that abounds in the mandatory national health insurance coverage to bring succor to citizens.
• Akwa Ibom, Kebbi, Taraba, Abia, Ebonyi, Zamfara rank low, at sub 200,000 enrolees• National enrolment low, slow, but on track, says NHIA
The World Health Organisation estimated that Nigeria has the highest out-of-pocket expenditure on health in West Africa, and many Nigerians are falling into poverty due to ill health. Section 13 of the Act provides for the operation of State Health Insurance Agencies and the Federal Capital Territory health insurance agency and by implication and law, the task of expanding coverage to 220 million Nigerians now rests with not only the NHIA but also State Social Health Insurance Agencies nationwide.
The statistics show that Delta has enroled 2,584,215, followed by Lagos State with 2,366,596 enrolees; Kano 1,194,578; Kaduna 952,900 out of eight million-plus population, and FCT 850,402 out of over four million population. Akwa Ibom State has the least number with 128,174 out of over five million residents, followed by Taraba with 148,620 out of four million, and Abia State with 159,121 out of 4.8 million population.
Oshunniyi argued that with the NHIS Act making health insurance mandatory for every resident of Nigeria, anyone who does not have a health plan is contravening the law. “A lot of changes need to be made to accommodate the major change in the law, which is that health insurance is now compulsory for all Nigerians whereas the original law was optional. You can imagine the logistics and other problems for a scheme that has to capture over 200 million Nigerians.”
He noted that the insurance coverage is still low because some people cannot afford it, while there are people who can pay but choose not to do so as the scheme was voluntary before it just became mandatory. Ubam explained that as of 2022, the agency’s target was to reach about 500,000 by 2027 and had enroled 245, 000 persons in just two years. “We want to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030,” he added.
He said: “The FCT is embarking on free enrolment for vulnerable persons through the BHCPF, we recently had free health insurance enrolment for pregnant women, and registered all the persons living with HIV that were present at the programme including persons living with disabilities. “This adopt-and-enrol programme of the FCT Health Insurance Scheme is supported by the United States Agency for International Development IHP. This is a strategy they used to increase enrolment in Sokoto state health insurance scheme, they targeted these companies, and this helped to increase enrolment,” he said.Before flagging, please keep in mind that Disqus does not moderate communities.
The Senate, through its Committee on Public Accounts, has slammed the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited , the Federal Inland Revenue Service , the Nigeria Police Force, and 12 other agencies for persistently refusing to respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 Audit Report .
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