The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has announced the unveiling of a new strategy called “Health Insurance Under One Roof”, to fast-track the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary of NHIS, Mohammed Sambo, while presenting the strategy to the leadership of the State Social Health Insurance Agencies (SSHIAs) in Abuja, emphasised that the greatest impediment to speedy attainment of UHC in the country remains fragmentation of resources, policies, efforts and strategies.
Sambo, in a statement on Wednesday by Ayo Osinlu, head, media and public relations, NHIS, said the most significant principle of health insurance is pooling and anything in contrast will not only result in loss of time and energy.
The ES stressed the need to develop an appropriate and enabling setting, which he described as the matrix of coverage, which will be a systematic arrangement that facilitates the achievement of set objectives.
He however explained that in the proposed arrangement, the development and deployment of ICT solutions, as well as Information, Education and Communication activities will have overarching and cross-cutting status, providing overall support services for the operational and management processes of health insurance in Nigeria.
To facilitate the finalisation of the details of this concept and receive inputs for strengthening it, the NHIS boss announced that a retreat will be held in the second week of February, to generate a framework for developing a set of conditions to produce a system for the effective operation and administration of Health Insurance Under One Roof.
Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja
