Stakeholders adopt framework for effective health insurance delivery

Moses Emorinken, Abuja

In a bid to surmount the many challenges bedeviling the effective delivery of health insurance in the country, stakeholders have adopted a novel framework called – ‘Health Insurance Under One Roof’.

This framework is expected to deal directly with the problems of fragmentation, insufficient political commitment, weak legal institutional and regulatory frameworks, inadequate financing resources, and poor engagements of stakeholders.

Asides improving the general poor awareness leading to limited acceptance of health insurance in the country, it also aims to solve the bottle necks of interoperability among states and federal players through the introduction of a robust ICT platform.

This was disclosed by the Head of Media and Public Relations of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Ayo Osinlu, in a statement Saturday in Abuja.

According to him, “The search for a common formula of operation in the industry became imperative in the face of mounting pressure to achieve Universal Health Coverage in the country, in line with the Health Sector Next Level Agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Other concerted efforts to accelerate the attainment of UHC include ongoing efforts in the National Assembly to amend the enabling law of NHIS to make health insurance mandatory in the country”.

READ ALSO: Federal, states health insurance schemes to come under ‘one roof’

Speaking to journalists, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, and the visioner of the new concept, Professor Mohammed Nasir Sambo said, “the initiative is a coordinating framework where all the stakeholders will come together in a synergy that enables an integration that produces quick result that will ultimately transform the nation’s health insurance landscape.

“Key stakeholders must come together in unanimity that allows for effective coordination of various existing and prospective health insurance schemes with a monitoring and evaluation strategy, and through necessary technical and administrative actions that may be required”.

Sambo explained that the framework will provide a binding force such as ICT, which will ensure that all stakeholders are able to key in their data towards achieving a holistic approach to efforts to attain UHC.

In his comments, the Chairman of the Forum of CEOs of State Social Health Insurance Agencies (SSHIAs), Dr. Adeniyi Oginni, observed that the concept of Health Insurance Under One Roof becomes inevitable because of the fragmentation and discoordination of operations in the health insurance space, which has negatively affected issues of growth and quality in the system.

He pledged the commitment of the state health insurance agencies to this framework, as it presents them opportunities to enjoy support in areas of obvious challenges for the state agencies, such as technical capacity, funding, ICT, among others.