We need N79 billion for health insurance coverage in 2016 - NHIS

                     

The Acting Executive Secretary of The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Femi Akingbade, said that Nigeria will need at least N79 billion to provide health insurance for vulnerable Nigerians in 2016.

Akingbade said the agency is targeting at least 40 million Nigerians for the scheme in 2016 alone.

Akingbade said: “I am not so much an advocate of international donors and things like that. I believe that all the funds that are needed can actually be generated internally.

“So, if for any reason there is a subsidy and it is earmarked for health, it will be a step in the right direction for us.

“From the brief calculation that we have done, even been modest and saying we want to pay the capitation of about N250 per person per month, the total amount that will be needed for 2016 for capitation alone to take care of 45 million Nigerians is N67.5 billion.”

Buttressing his claim that the N67 billion needed could be raised internally, Akingbade noted that “last year alone, private sector initiative spent in excess of N79 billion for health system.

“But you will find that a lot of these monies come as vertical programmes. They don’t have that high impact because everybody is running their thing on their own.”

Akingbade also hinted that the current enrollment for the scheme was not encouraging as there were only 7.9 million people currently on the scheme.

He however blamed the current nature of health insurance in the country for the poor enrollment figure.

“While it is not mandatory, the only class of people that it has been made mandatory for are the public servants at the federal level. And that is one of the things we are still trying to tell the states that it should be made mandatory for state government workers,” he said.

On what the agency is doing concerning people living with HIV, Akingbade said they are only covered in the scheme at the level of screening, education and awareness.

He however said that the scheme was starting collaboration with NACA to actually see how it can be of help.

TN