Matthew Otoijagha
Worried about the state of health insurance in the country, the Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria, HCPAN, last week called on the Federal Government to resolve the alleged politicized leadership brawl rocking the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, for the country to be able to achieve overdue Universal Healthcare Coverage.
Speaking during the association’s Extra Ordinary National Executive Council, NEC, meeting of its association aimed at address national issues affecting the health sector, the National President of the HCPAN, Dr. Adeyeye Arigbabuwo noted that the scheme after a decade was still weak and politicised.
Lamenting that the uptake was still less than five percent across the nation, Arigbabuwo stressed the need for NHIS to be more focused on regulatory functions and the roaring sea of political turmoil in its setting to come to an end so that it can be stable.
He said: “Once NHIS is stable, the universal healthcare coverage will be a dream realized. NHIS is the captain that can drive all these. All eyes should be focused on peace attainment in the scheme to have a team that will carry Nigerians along.”
Continuing, the President identified other issues bedeviling the scheme such as low awareness of the scheme across communities nationwide, out of pocket payment, poor funding, impoverishment of providers, poor distribution of enrollees and apparent undermining and uncared for standalone secondary provider facilities by the present structure of some state-supported Health Insurance Scheme.
Others include, some HMOs practicing with impunity with most of them owing providers for several months, teaching hospitals taking over the bulk of enrollees and primary cases among others.
Arigbabuwo said the above issues must be looked at and that the scheme must be made compulsory. He regretted that benefit package, tariff and operating guideline in the system is not in tune with present economic realities and the sustainability and survival of providers, noting that any Capitation less that of NHIS (750) will amount to under insurance and shortchanging the providers/Enrollees.
He said: “For all the state’s health insurance programs across the country, we appeal to the operators, various state governments that we have the mandate of all the groups in the health sector that we should do appropriate pricing of healthcare delivery.
“What is being offered now as payment in forms of capitation when matched with payment package, there is great disparity and the gap needs to be filled so that Nigerians will not see a failed system,” Arigbabuwo said.
The association also wants the government to encourage reverse medical tourism by finding ways to bring back health workers in the diaspora by creating enabling environment. Arigbabuwo, however, reiterates that if Nigeria must achieve Universal Healthcare Coverage, the above issues must be tackled and all stakeholders must come together and work together to achieve a better result in the health sector.