Overhaul NHIS To Improve Nigeria’s Health Outcomes, Scientist Urges FG

Nigerians will enjoy improved health outcomes if the Federal Government overhauls the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and prioritises the health sector’s budget/resources allocation, Dr Livinus Abonyi, a Medical Imaging Scientist, said.
Abonyi, the Head, Radiography Department, College of Medicine University of Lagos (CMUL), said this in an interview with NAN yesterday in Lagos.
He said that the NHIS and resource allocation are two key areas the government needed to pay serious attention to, to improve the country’s health indices.
Abonyi explained that an effective health insurance scheme was key to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“An improved and effective health insurance will give Nigerians access to a full spectrum of high-quality health services wherever and whenever they need them without financial stress,” he said.
The scientist decried the loopholes in the health insurance scheme, saying that it had demobilised its capacity to achieve its mandates, hence, the need for a total system overhaul.
Abonyi regretted that improper implementation of the NHIS was one area of great concern which affected the health of Nigerians.
He explained that there was an Act which compelled companies and other established corporate organisations to pay for the funding of the health of Nigerian citizens.
The scientist lamented that the Act was barely 10 per cent implemented, noting that the implementation of the Act would ensure an average citizen got attended to whenever he walked into a hospital.
He said that everyone should be initiated into the scheme, if that Act was to be revived and compulsorily implemented.
Abonyi added that if all the people who were supposed to pay into the scheme made the expected contributions, the resources generated would be enough to take care of all sick enrollees per time.
“That’s the way developed countries and people who care about the welfare of their citizens are going.
“Failure of Nigeria to go in that direction will continue to prove a burden on the ordinary citizen.
“Statistics show currently that over 75 per cent of cost of treatment is paid out of pocket by citizens; that is not supposed to be, the reverse should rather be the case,” he said.
The scientist said that health insurance should take almost 80 per cent of the cost of treatment, diagnosis and the rest of them that concerned the health of citizens, while the marginal percentage should be paid by individuals.
He noted that if operated that way, an average citizen walking on the street would be assured of living till the next day until a time determined by God.
“So, the Nigerian Government should wake up to the need to fully implement the NHIS,” Abonyi said
According to him, the government should prioritise the allocation of reasonable resources to the health sector.
Abonyi said this was because it was the only way to provide the right facilities to make diagnosis, treatment and improve the general health outcomes.
“Another major area that is responsible for the poor healthcare provision for the citizenry of Nigeria is the budgeting and budget allocation to health.
“The Abuja declaration of 2001 stipulates that a minimum of 15 per cent of the total budget of the country should go to health.
“This is because health is wealth and health of the citizens to a very large extent determines the success, productivity and wellbeing of that country,” he said.
Abonyi regretted that budgeting allocation for healthcare had, however, continued dwindling below the stipulated 15 per cent declaration.