NHIS Set To Subsidize Maternal And Child Healthcare in Nigeria

                            

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has announced plans to subsidize healthcare for pregnant women and children under the age of five years in Nigeria.

According to a statement signed by Ayo Osinlu, Head, Media Public Relations, the agency also reassured the country that it will attain the 40% health insurance coverage by the end of 2015. is

The NHIS boss, Dr. ‘Femi Thomas was quoted to have said that the Scheme was prepared to further ease access to effective healthcare for Nigerians, by providing subsidy for the Community Based Health Insurance Programme (CBSHIP), through payment of premium contributions for all registered pregnant women and children under five years of age, for a period of three years.

The Chief Executive said NHIS had cumulatively expended over N1.2 billion to provide care for pregnant women and children below five5 years of age, under the NHIS-MDGs Maternal and Child Health project since 2008 in six benefitting Local Government Areas of Sokoto state, namely Kebbe, Yabo, Binji, Tangaza, Sabon-Birni and Isa.

Dr. Thomas emphasised that in addition to removing financial barriers in accessing healthcare services for these vulnerable groups, the programme has also facilitated significant improvement in infrastructure and quality of service delivery for the benefitting communities.