The Healthcare Providers’ Association of Nigeria (HCPAN), on Wednesday urged both Federal and State Governments to increase the speed of implementing health insurance in the country.

Dr Oluwole Sanda, the National President of HCPAN, made the plea at an ordinary meeting organised by the association in Lagos.

Theme of the meeting was: “Fusing the Various Interests and Role Plays of Stakeholders to Give Health Insurance Deserved Place in the Nigeria Clime, Paradigm Shift.”

Sanda said that health insurance was the only solution to the nation’s poor health quality and indices, saying that governments need to make it available, accessible and affordable to Nigerians.

“Health insurance is the only sustainable model for healthcare financing in Nigeria.

“Federal and State Governments’ health budgets are not sufficient for Nigerian populace.

“The National Health Service (NHS)  in the United Kingdom budgeted 124.7 billion pounds in 2017 and 2018 for healthcare delivery.

“This amount is equivalent to Nigeria’s entire budget for 10 years.

“The lack of adequate financing has led to some of the problems we face which include: poor remuneration of healthcare providers (Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurse Laboratory Scientists, Health Managers).

“Equally, poor remuneration and working conditions lead to brain drain; we have become a training ground for other countries.”

According to the expert, the National Assembly needs to make the passage of compulsory health insurance bill a top priority.

“States Assembly should not be left behind in making health insurance compulsory in setting up the state health insurance law,” he said.

Also, Dr Adeyeye Arigbabuwo, the Deputy National President of HCPAN, said that there were needs to reposition healthcare providers and health insurance scheme in the country.

Arigbabuwo said that reposition of health insurance scheme would help to improve the universal health coverage.

“Health insurance scheme is the present and the future of healthcare financing in the country.

“Government and healthcare providers need to know the appropriate pricing of healthcare delivery.

“Those in charge of fund management should always try to get it better and there should be harmonisation among all health professionals.

“Every health professional has business to do on health insurance.

“We need to explore the possibilities of state government support on health insurance scheme.

“Some few states are into health insurance scheme and other state governments can follow their health insurance scheme procedure,” he said.

Arigbabuwo said that health insurance was supposed to lessen the burden of healthcare financing, noting that the coverage were still very low.

“Governments at all levels, healthcare providers and health professionals need to identify what is affecting the health insurance scheme in the country.

“Health insurance is all about transparency, which means, there should be trust among healthcare providers,” he said. (NAN)

– Aug. 28, 2018 @ 18:05 GMT |