Association seeks operation of new Health Insurance Act

Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria (HMCAN) has said that for Nigerians to access better health care services there needs to be in operation the new Healthcare Insurance Act.

The association explained that a systemic process that would allow people to run the ideas that are contained in the law is needed to ensure proper implementation of the law.

Speaking during the association’s Annual General Meeting and the induction ceremony for new fellows and members of the Institute of Health, Finance and Management, (IHFM), Leke Osunniyi, the chairman, HMCAN said as the law stands, the act is near perfect, but what is needed is the operationalisation of the law and domestication of the law.

At the event which was themed: National Health Insurance Authority Act 2022: The Mandatory Nature of Health Insurance and Prospects for HMOs, Osunniyi said when a law is passed, it has to be operationalised and industry stakeholders would sit down and articulate how they feel that these laws should best be operationalised, otherwise everyone would be interpreting it differently.

“What was the intention of the people who drafted these laws? What were they looking at? These are the things that the stakeholders would sit down, consider and come up with guidelines which would be a win-win for all players in the industry.

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“The old law which was the NHIS Act of 1999 was repealed in May and the new one enacted. The flaw of the old law was that it wasn’t mandatory, it was obligatory and it wasn’t compulsory. The new law makes it compulsory for you and I to carry health insurance and if we don’t, it’s illegal.

“What the law says is that every Nigerian must first have a social health insurance scheme and then they can do top ups with private health insurance so that everybody has a baseline health insurance cover. If you can afford it, you then layer on something on top of it,” he said.

He said the leadership of the national health insurance authority estimates that there are about 83 million vulnerable Nigerians and efforts are on-going to raise the necessary finance to provide care for all these people in annual basis.

Peter Oriavwote, managing director and CEO, Salus Trust Limited, a health maintenance organisation said for any new act as this, there are always teething problems at the initial stage, but they shall be addressed.

“The fact is that every Nigerian resident has to enrol on a health insurance programme. It will increase the landscape for businesses, for HMOs and hospitals in Nigeria.

“Sickness and food do not consider the rich or the poor. This is the same thing for health. Health is important. It is better for you to enrol in health insurance with small money so that when you fall sick, you won’t need to pay anything,” Oriavwote said.