Nigeria’s healthcare system is not in a very good state, no doubt, but new moves are being made to reposition the sector. The newly-signed National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2022 is one of such moves as the new law, upon full implementation, repeals the country’s National Health Insurance Scheme Act and it is expected to provide health insurance coverage for all Nigerians.
While signing the Bill into law, President Muhammadu Buhari stated that “The new National Health Insurance authority will collaborate with state governments’ health insurance schemes to accredit primary and secondary health care facilities and ensure the enrolment of Nigerians.” Underscoring the importance of the new law, the Executive Director of Nigeria’s National Primary HealthCare Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, maintained that the new move to reposition the healthcare system in Nigeria now aligns the country with “the global push for universal access to quality and affordable healthcare.”
A good move, without an iota of doubt, and one that has been widely commended, the new law, which also makes health insurance mandatory for not only Nigerians but even foreigners legally residing in the country, is to promote, regulate and integrate health insurance schemes in Nigeria, as it is also expected to improve and harness private sector participation in the provision of healthcare services.
The new law also enforces the basic minimum package of health services for all Nigerians across all health insurance schemes operating within the country, especially as it provides for the floating of a Vulnerable Group Fund, which targets children below the age of five, pregnant women, older people, people with physical and mental disabilities, as well as the poorest of the poor.
It is worthy to note that only about three percent of Nigerians have access to health insurance with the majority of this figure being men in formal employment. The liberalisation and democratisation of health insurance with the new law is therefore a good development.
However, the implementation of the new law might run into the next administration after the 2023 general election and Nigerians might not yet be able to reap the full benefits of the law. Just like the NHIS, which was established in 1999 but could not take off until six years after, the implementation of the new scheme might also be a big challenge despite the inherent benefits. It is rather unfortunate that the present crop of leaders in the country has failed woefully to deliver on promises made to the electorate and might not give the needed push to a law that is capable of changing the game in healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
It is most disheartening that our leaders are not also living by examples. While they profess to be interested in developing the healthcare sector, their actions speak in the opposite as they prefer to go outside the country for their medicals at the slightest opportunity.
President Buhari, for instance, prefers to go to the United Kingdom for treatment whenever he falls sick as the presidential clinic in the Aso Rock villa is nothing to write home about, despite gulping billions of naira in allocation from the federal budget every year. It is really disappointing that the president, as at August 2021, had spent 200 days in the UK on medical trips thereby spending an average of 1 in 10 days in the UK since he assumed office.
Nonetheless, all hope is not lost as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has recently made a point that world-class medical services could still be obtained in Nigeria. Osinbajo’s recent admission at a private medical facility in Lagos, where he had a successful knee surgery conducted by a team of Nigerian doctors, is a demonstration of his faith and confidence in the country’s healthcare delivery system.
Despite the fact that he had the choice of following the not-too-good example of his boss by embarking on a medical trip abroad, the Vice President decided to make a strong statement by his choice. This is really worthy of emulation and highly commendable.
It is on record that Osinbajo, unlike President Buhari, has not gone on any medical trip abroad since he became the vice president as he is said to have full confidence in Nigerian doctors both locally and abroad. This belief has just been demonstrated even when it mattered most.
We believe that one of the best ways to restore confidence in the country’s healthcare system is when leaders begin to patronise local medical facilities as this would expose them to the inadequacies that are crying to be fixed in order for the government to start doing what is necessary. We therefore call on other government officials to emulate what the vice president has just done and follow his good examples of always patronising local doctors and medical facilities instead of rushing abroard on medical tourism for services that could be rendered at home.
We also commend President Buhari for signing the National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2022 into law and urge him to put the process of its implementation in place so that Nigerians could really benefit from it. This could be a worthy legacy his Administration would leave for Nigerians despite all other unfulfilled promises in the past seven years.
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