Legal Practitioners across Nigeria are soon to have access to medical attention as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) plans a colloboration to this effect.
The plan was announced during a courtesy visit by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Apata to the Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, in Abuja.
The NBA and NHIS agreed to work out details that will lead to lawyers receiving healthcare coverage under the Scheme.
Apata who led a three-person delegation to the corporate headquarters of the NHIS expressed confidence that the partnership between both organisations was bound to yield better quality of life for members of the association.
He noted that health insurance remained the best option for avoiding paying out-of-pocket for healthcare.
According to him, although the NBA already had life insurance policy whereby relations received specified sum of money at the death of members, there was the need for health insurance to ensure good quality of life for members of the association.
Recalling a personal experience of the benefit of health insurance when he was in need of medical attention, Apata emphasized the necessity for lawyers to have health insurance due to the stressful nature of their work.
The NMA president said that he had made health insurance a campaign promise and it must be fulfiled.
‘’ If I did not have medical insurance, I would have paid so much for my healthcare when I was in dire need,” Apata said.
He also said that the NMA has about one hundred thousand members nationwide which is considered significant to warrant healthcare coverage.
Adding that partnership with the association held prospects of going beyond enrolment of lawyers to members of the association serving as opinion moulders for the scheme.
While highlighting the Scheme’s commitment to cover every Nigerian, the Executive Secretary of the NHIS expressed optimism that steps taken by the NBA will inspire other professional bodies to consider similar initiatives.
He further observed that the e-NHIS platform recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will put the Scheme’s business processes on the cutting edge of technology when it comes on stream.
He also said that the scheme was in cooperation with international partners to build capacity of the staff of the Scheme.
To speed up the process of achieving the stated objectives of the collaboration, the Scheme raised a committee to liaise with the legal body.
