Nigerians are advised to take advantage of the mandatory health insurance provided by the Nigerian government to achieve universal health coverage.
This according to the coordinator National Health Insurance Authority, in Lagos state, south-West Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Abubakar, covers every Nigerian including the most vulnerable.
Mrs Abubakar told VON health correspondent, after delivering her lecture titled, Achieving universal health coverage through mandatory health insurance, at the 2022 Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN) Annual Symposium that
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is not something that came from the blues but was set up to cover all Nigerians.
“We have been trying to see how Nigeria can achieve universal health coverage and that is to make health insurance mandatory. The act that established National Health Insurance scheme (NHIS) was faulty because it made health insurance optional for Nigerians.”
Mrs Abubakar said in order to achieve the UN sustainable development goals which include all countries to have universal health coverage, the Nigerian government decided to revisit the act.
She said, “We thought how to achieve this in Nigeria because from 2005 NHIS was established, we have not been able to insure more than 10 percent of Nigerians and we are talking about over 200 million people, so we started working on how to change NHIS act and finally on May 19 2022, NHIA was signed into law making health insurance mandatory and compulsory for all Nigerians including the vulnerable.”
Speaking on how the poor and the most vulnerable can also benefit from the health insurance, Mrs Abubakar said every state insurance agency is to identify the vulnerable among them through their different platforms and once they are identified, then they must be verified after which those vulnerable can now have access to health care through primary health care centres.
“The most vulnerable who can not provide basic health care for themselves have been taken care of. We gave different programs for different segment of Nigerians. We have programs grouped into individual family registration program and its cut across everybody.”
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Jimmy Arigbabuwo, President, Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria (HCPAN), commended HEWAN for the theme of the conference, describing it as apt and timely especially now that the world is suffering from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
He said the sub-them, Achieving Universal Health Coverage through Mandatory Health Insurance: Role of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), is also in line with the objective of the present administration and what all Nigerians are yearning for.
