The National Health Insurance Scheme,(NHIS) should concentrate more on its regulatory roles in order to enable it harvest 85 percent of Nigerians in informal sector which would enable the fast-track process of the Universal Health Coverage of all Nigerians, the key representatives of Health Maintenance Organisations, HMOs have said.
The key objective of the NHIS according to its acts of 2003 is to register, licence, and regulate health insurance schemes. The act also focuses on the supervision of the operations of health insurance schemes, while granting accreditation to health care providers and monitoring their performances.
Its regulatory and supervisory role is geared towards ensuring the provision of Universal Health Coverage for all Nigerians.
But,the Kolawole Owoka, the Chairman of the Health and Managed Care Associations of Nigeria,and Lekan Ewenla,the managing director of Ultimate Health Management Services at a joint interactive session with t select journalists over the weekend in Abuja said,”The NHIS should concentrate on its regulatory roles as spelt out in the its act rather than setting up marketing departments to develop products for the scheme which ordinarily is the role of the HMOs”
“The situation has created conflicting signals which is also affecting the harvesting of 85 percent of yet to be captured informal sector into the Universal Health Coverage pool”, the HMO representatives said.
They however lauded the initiative of the new Executive Secretary Usman Yusuf in working out a technical committee that would address all the concerns raised by the HMOs which would enable it capture more Nigerians into Universal Health Coverage pool.
They also suggested the investments in common ICT platforms by the NHIS to enable it interface with the HMOs,and Health Care Providers ,in addition to capacity building which ensures global best practice in the regulatory functions of the NHIS.
Notably, the International Law stipulates that every employer must provide the medical needs of their employees,and Nigeria is a signatory to the ILO treaty.
Findings reveal that less than 10 percent of NIgerians are yet to be captured in any form of health insurance scheme,which experts attributed to poor regulatory and enforcement functions,thereby propelling more out of pocket expenses for health services in the country.
Experts insist that the Health Indices together with the level of Health insurance penetration constitute parameters for the measurement of level of socio-economic development of the country.
The HMO representatives say every year 100 million people are pushed into poverty and N150 million people globally suffer financial catastrophe annually because of the out of pocket expenditure health services,which Universal Health Coverage could have addressed.
The HMO representatives however noted that body has products which would enable it pull millions of people into health insurance at minimal cost to capture majority of Nigerians who are not captured in the structure provided by the formal sector.
Harrison Edeh – Abuja
