Rural dwellers to benefit from Health Scheme

Description:

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Nigeria aims to provide easy access to healthcare for all Nigerians at an affordable cost through various prepayment systems.

It is said by some that more than a decade after the launch of the country's health insurance scheme most Nigerians do not still have access to adequate healthcare.

Over five million Nigerians have so far been enrolled under the scheme nationwide. The major beneficiaries so far are from the Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies.

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has spent over N2.7 billion on maternal and child health (MCH) project in 12 states of the federation in the last one year.

According to the Executive Secretary, M.B.W. Dogo-Muhammad, “NHIS is totally committed to securing universal coverage and access to adequate and affordable healthcare in order to improve the health status of Nigerians, especially for those participating in the various programmes/products of the Scheme.”

The Executive Secretary explains further that given the general poor state of the nation’s health services and the excessive dependence and pressure on Government provided health facilities, with the dwindling funding of healthcare in the face of rising cost, the Scheme is designed to facilitate fair financing of health care costs through pooling and judicious utilization of financial risk protection and cost-burden sharing for people, against high cost of health care through institution of prepaid mechanism, prior to their falling ill. This of course is in addition to the provision of regulatory oversight on Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and other players in Healthcare delivery.

The Scheme was officially launched on 6th June 2005 and commencement of services to enrolees started in September 2005. Till date, over 4 million Identity Cards have been issued. So far 62 HMOs have been accredited and registered and more applications are being processed. Presently, 5,949 Healthcare Providers, 24 Banks, 5 Insurance Companies and 3 Insurance Brokers have also been accredited and registered. In the list of states that have so far shown their interests are; Rivers, FCT, Benue, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom while Cross River State has fully rolled in. NHIS is adjudged as one of the fastest growing Social health Insurance Schemes in the world.

So it appears that the NHIS vision of securing universal coverage in Nigeria is coming close to realisation as plans are underway to ensure that the poor rural areas nationwide benefit from the Scheme by the end of 2010.