NHIA enrols over 20m Nigerians in health insurance scheme,
…Targets 44m by 2030
By Muyideen Aliyu
In an effort to increase healthcare delivery access, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has enrolled over 20 million Nigerians under the scheme across Nigeria.
The Acting Zonal Coordinator, North Central Zone for Kwara, Niger and Kogi, Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi, made this known while speaking on the sidelines of the Stakeholders Forum organised in Ilorin to sensitise stakeholders including Health Management Officers (HMOs), healthcare providers, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Abdullahi explained that the Forum is to enlighten the public on policies of the Authority towards ensuring best practices, stressing that the current reforms of the Authority are for optimal healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
He noted that the policies are geared towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, adding that Nigeria is targeting the enrollment of 44 million people who would be able to access healthcare delivery.
"We are enlightening the stakeholders about the increase in tariff. NHIA is ensuring efficiency through quality in service delivery, adding that the tariff in terms of capitation increased in terms of fee for service. As it was N750 for capitation, currently the fee is N1,450 for every life that is registered under health insurance," he said.
Abdullahi explained that the Authority has increased the standard of accreditation and re-accreditation to be in tune with the current demand despite the challenges.
According to him, these reforms are part of the activities of the current management led by the Director General of the Authority, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, who is working assiduously to ensure every citizen in Nigeria is enrolled under the scheme.
He said that President Ahmed Tinubu has made health insurance enrollment compulsory for all citizens in the country, adding that this is to ensure Nigerians have access to healthcare.
"We are working towards ensuring a drug-free society, under the NHIA medicine initiative. We are going to have NHIA branded drugs that our enrollees can easily access," he said.
Abdullahi stated that towards ensuring that enrollees don’t suffer at the point of accessing service, the Federal Government has introduced the One-hour Referral Authorization Code to ensure that enrollees don’t suffer waiting when they need referrals from primary to secondary healthcare.
Also, the State Coordinator, NHIA, Hajiya Idayat Bello-Olaitan, expressed delight on the introduction of the new intervention programmes that would improve access and quality of healthcare delivery in the country.
She listed some of the new interventions to include the Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEMONC) programme, designed to tackle the five leading causes of maternal mortality in Nigeria.
These causes, she said, are haemorrhage, preeclampsia, sepsis, post-abortion complications, and obstructed labour. Other programmes include the NHIA Free Fistula Programme (FFP) and Global Fund HIV-AIDS Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DRT).
"These programmes are crucial in scaling up Universal Health Coverage and aligning with the Renewed Hope Agenda in the health sector as directed by the President," she said.
Olaitan said that the Authority is commencing on 'Mystery Shopping', which is monitoring and evaluation conducted by officials of the NHIA to ensure enrollees don’t suffer in terms of accessing healthcare from providers.
"The government is committed towards ensuring that enrollees don’t suffer at the point of accessing services and also mandates all health facilities to give the right treatment to all enrollees," she said.