The plan by ‘Police HMO’, an independent company fronting as an accredited police health management organisation, to pull out over 1.2 million police personnel and their dependants currently being administered by nine other HMO’s is causing a crisis in the industry, BusinessDay investigations have revealed.
This move which analysts say is capable of destroying the flourishing National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has led other uniformed organisations like Customs, Prisons etc to clamour to register their own HMOs, instead of facing their core functions.
This does not augur well for the NHIS and is capable of derailing the goals and objectives of creating an enabling environment for future growth of the industry, analysts say.
Senior industry operators who spoke to our reporter were all agreed that government institutions have no business doing business that ordinarily should be the purview of the private sector.
Our sources chose not to be named because they were not authorised to speak on the matter and also because they did not want to appear to be canvassing.
One of them said, “This is another attempt to mess up the system, given what has happened to police pensions in the past.”
He added, “If government which is supposed to be a regulator, now turns to be an operator, the tendency is that corporate governance would be compromised and this will not be in the interest of the industry.
He further said, “Having said that, the Federal Government should beam its searchlight and nip this ugly trend before its becomes a reality. This matter falls into the ambit of corruption, which the Buhari government has vowed to crush. We are waiting and watching.”
Worldwide, the practice is that the military have a stand-alone system of healthcare because of the very nature of their operations. Thus in the USA, the Veterans System takes care of the military. The same case was made for the Nigerian Armed Forces for the exclusivity of the Defence HMO.
It is important to note that all staff of the Ministry of Defence are actually covered separately by other HMOs. The administrative Board of the Defence HMO is made up of the officers of the headship of each arm of the military.
The practice worldwide is also that all other security agencies are covered principally under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
‘Police HMO’, according to industry sources, was actually set up by a retired Senator of the Federal Republic, along with a few friends. The organisation was registered as a private company in 2007 and somehow got the Corporate Affairs Commission to accept the use of “Police”.
This was only possible because the businessman behind the entity gave board seats to retired and serving top police officers. With the aid of the former SGF Pius Anyim, former Minister of Health Chukwu, and Senator Sylvanus Ngele, all from Ebonyi State. They prevailed on former President Jonathan to erroneously approve the accreditation of the “Police HMO”.
Directors of Police HMO Include Ehindero Sunday Gabriel, Usun Ususun O, Labaran Bello Wueno, Okaro Columbus O, Okiro Mike Mbama, Onovo Ogbonna O, Okeke Alex Emeka, Eneh Donald Osita and Ngele Sylvanus Ngiji.
The analysts further stated that regulation should be proactive, such as to develop and grow the health insurance market. The scheme requires a strong board like the CBN, NDIC, NCC etc. A regulatory body with a governing council made up of patriotic and technically experienced members would be necessary at all times.
The Act of the NHIS should be amended to make enrolment in pre-paid plans mandatory for all citizens, they argued.
The National Health Insurance Scheme was flagged off in earnest 2005. Over the past years it has provided cover to about three million federal civil servants and their dependants, through HMOs that also cover over 1.2 million private lives under private pre-paid plans regulated by the scheme.
This is a scheme with the longest gestation period (over 40 years) in the world, finally flagged off by former President Obasanjo in 2005. That administration must be commended for having a strong political will uncommon in the history of this nation in her match towards development. But of course NHIS is just one of such earth shaking policies that have positively changed the economic landscape of the country.
The scheme took off, albeit slowly, thanks to the strong political will and cooperation of all stakeholders. A lot of work principally actuarial, was done to determine the premium payable by the individual contributor.
However, in a rare display of government leadership, the Federal Government persuaded all to allow the scheme take off with just 10 percent of basic salary and matched words with action by paying for all Federal civil servants to enrol immediately.
This unprecedented government-led initiative resulted in enrolment of about three million civil servants and their dependants into the scheme, with equally unprecedented increase in access to healthcare nationwide through a network of public and private Health Care Providers HCPs.
It should be recalled that Private Health Insurance predated the commencement of NHIS schemes. Indeed about eight HMOs had been in the market of pre-paid health care since 1997.
