The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has stated that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which was flagged off since June 2005 has covered less than 7 per cent of the Nigeria population. Dr Kayode Obembe, NMA President said this yesterday in a statement to mark this year’s International Day of Universal Health Coverage commemorated every December 12, in Abuja. He said governments at all level should redirect attention to community health insurance as a panacea to the 70 per cent out-of-pocket expenditure incurred by Nigerians.According to the Obembe, “the most primitive and primordial form of health financing is out pocket. It is curative, has budget constraint, providers are not prepaid and prepared, so the need to ask for deposit even in public hospitals.” “The community based insurance triangle should be established at every geopolitical ward of the federation. The fund should be channeled from NHIS to community level with the Health Management Organisation (HMO) as the accounting partner.”
The NMA also provided guidelines on how benefit package, account signatories, source of premiums and other ways of raising funds including tax from tobacco, alcohol, air travel tickets and value added tax. “Community based health insurance with foundation laid on ward health organisation, health care providers, and HMO is the panacea for achieving universal coverage and sustainable development goals.”
This is the only way to sidetrack the financial obstacles caused by counterpart funding and lack of fiscal autonomy of the local government,” the NMA added.
Source: Leadership Online
