Nigerians and other stakeholders that participated in the BusinessDay Digital Dialogue on health insurance have canvassed for a law that bans elected officials from going overseas for medical treatment while in office.
This overwhelming support for a law against medical tourism for elected officials was made known through a poll conducted by BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU) during a webinar programme last Wednesday, which registered 600 participants from sectors and organisations such as healthcare, insurance, banks, MDAs, embassies, as well as from outside the country.
That most of the ruling class in Nigeria are not in tune with the state of hospitals and other healthcare facilities was confirmed a fortnight ago when the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boos Mustapha, said he never knew Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure was such in a deplorable condition until he was made the team lead, Presidential Task Force on Covid 19.
BusinessDay, West Africa’s source of business and financial intelligence, on Wednesday, April 22, 2020, brought together leading public and private sectors’ players in the nation’s health sector to brainstorm on how the healthcare system in the country could be given a facelift.
Inadequate investments and the near-abandonment by elected public officials overtime have made the sector uninspiring leading to huge losses to the nation in the forms of brain drain and medical tourism.
According to Nigerian health officials, the country loses more than N360 billion annually to outbound medical tourism as the elite and elected officials continue to show strong preference for services rendered by American, European and Indian medical practitioners and facilities. This is in addition to scores of medical practitioners that leave the country yearly in search of better opportunities overseas.
The latest BusinessDay Digital Dialogue on “Healthcare Financing: The Challenges and Prospects for Private Capital” was meant to promote universal health coverage in the country.
Speakers at the event included Mohammed Nasir Sambo, a professor and executive secretary/CEO of the National Healthcare Insurance Scheme (NHIS); Fola Laoye, CEO, Health Markets Africa; Uche Orji, CEO, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), and Tope Adeniyi, CEO, AXA Mansard Health Insurance. The programme was moderated by Pamela Jackson-Ajayi, a distinguished medical practitioner and CEO, Synlab Nigeria.
When asked if they would support a national legislation that forbids any elected officials from going for medical treatment abroad, 76 percent of the participants said Yes; 11 percent said No, while 13 percent said they were not sure if they would support such a legislation.
Concerning what they considered as the priority for effective healthcare delivery in Nigeria, 34 percent of the participants said the nation’s medical facilities required an overhaul while another 34 percent wanted better training programs for medical workers in the country.
On health insurance, 48 percent of the participants said health insurance is good but the scheme is not well understood by many Nigerians just as it is not yet delivering enough value as it is presently being practised.
In addition, most of the participants wanted a public-private partnership (PPP) model where the private sector has the larger stake. In other words, 60 percent of the participants supported a PPP led by the private sector. Thirteen percent wanted government to have a higher stake while 28 percent wanted a PPP model where both the public and private sectors have equal stake.
“Healthcare coverage talks about the totality of the processes that will make a country mobilise resources to adequately finance its healthcare system.
Globally, it is being canvassed that to have universal healthcare provisions, countries have to organise their healthcare systems so the healthcare financing can be done through health insurance mechanism. This engenders equity, and encourages pro-subsidisation which is a system where the rich who are not likely to have frequent health challenges, support the poor. The younger people who are less likely to have health challenges will subsidise for the elderly people”, Mohammed Sambo, Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), said.
