The Nation Newspaper

Tag: National Health Insurance Scheme

  • Buhari, NHIS and anti-graft battle

    Happenings at the seat of power in the last few weeks, to many Nigerians, are fast pointing to the beginning of cracks in the Presidency.

    Many Nigerians have continued to wonder if the ‘father’ – ‘son’ relationship between President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is still intact.

    Severally in the past, the two leaders have maintained that the relationship between them is more than just ‘cordial’ but ‘father – son’ relationship.

    The good relationship was clearly exhibited when the President was on medical vacation for over 100 days in the United Kingdom last year.

    During the period, Osinbajo’s loyalty was total, which had never been seen between the past number one and number two citizens of the country.

    But one of the recent issues that is giving the impression that a division is fast taking place in the Villa, is last Tuesday’s reinstatement of the suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf.

    Osinbajo, who was the Acting President when the President was in London last year, had approved through the Minister of Heath, Prof. Isaac Adewole, the suspension of Yusuf on 6th of July, 2017 over allegations of fraud.

    Yusuf, whose suspension was based on allegations of abuse of office, nepotism and insubordination, was accused of buying a brand new Toyota Sports Utility Vehicle with number plate, NHIS 12Y-01 FG, for N58m.

    The amount for the vehicle was said to be above his spending limit of N2.5m and without the express permission of the Health Minister.

    In total, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was alleged to be investigating Yusuf for over N900 million fraud.

    Apart from being accused of awarding contracts to his cronies without following due process, Yusuf was also said to have favoured northern Muslims while many Christian southerners were often treated denied.

    In order to get to the bottom of the matter in line with the administration’s anti-graft battle, the EFCC and ICPC stepped in and began investigation on the matter.

    But before they could finish their investigations and make their findings public, a letter from the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, reinstated Yusuf last Tuesday.

    Many Nigerians, who noted that the government, as at last weekend, was yet to disown the Kyari’s letter or disown the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Malami Abubakar, over recall to service of former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulraheed Maina, have continued to criticised the latest action by Kyari.

    Apart from claiming that the government is paying lip service to the fight against corruption, they believe that some northerners in the good books of the President are becoming untouchable irrespective of fraudulent allegations leveled against them.

    In a statement last Wednesday, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) signed by its Secretary-General, Alade Lawal, said “This is one intervention too many and as such Mr. President should allow Yusuf to retire from service to have time to run his personal business. How can a government official being investigated for a whopping sum of N919m fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission be reinstated by the government that came to power promising to sanitise the system?

    “This is very unfortunate. We, therefore, urge President Buhari to rescind his action and allow Prof. Yusuf to leave the system in peace.

    “Thus, if Prof. Yusuf resumes as the Executive Secretary of NHIS, it will amount to passing a vote of no confidence on the Minister.

    “What type of a government are we claiming to be running that anyone who is close to the President will become lawless, will not obey public service rules, nor report to the supervisory Minister and running a government agency as his personal estate because he is close to the powers-that-be?

    “This is the type of action that continues to give the likes of the United States President, Donald Trump, the effrontery to be deriding Africa and its leaders.

    ”The Investigative Panel set up by the Minister of Health to look into the alleged atrocities of Prof. Yusuf, including engagement of a consultancy firm in which he had vested interest to be ripping off the NHIS is a serious public demeanour that should not be condoned.

    ”It is also on record that Prof. Yusuf had recruited persons from his primordial constituency who are on Grade Level 10 in the State Public Service and imposed them on the staff of the NHIS by placing them on Grade Level 15 and above.

    ”As of the time of going to the press, the workers in the NHIS have become restive thereby setting the tone for a series of trade union actions that will be deployed if Yusuf is eventually reinstated.” he added

    Based on the reinstatement, Constitutional and Human Rights lawyer Mike Ozekhome (SAN) said “This is one more exemplication of the truism that this government fights corruption within the government with sweet – smelling Sasarobia perfume while it fights corruption against opponents and critics of government with a powerful insecticide.

    “That is why the government will order the arrest of Kassim Afegbua for merely advising the President not to seek re-election.

    “That is why a whole Minister will remove a person after a panel of enquiry has found the person culpable and the President will reinstate that person.

    “It shows again and again the issue of corruption being fought is a ruse to hoodwink the unwary and ignorant members of the society. No corruption is being fought at all.” he stated

    The seemingly tribalistic trend, according these Nigerians, is fast encouraging impunity and in-subordinations in the system.

    Workers union at the NHIS has also protested last week against the reinstatement of Yusuf.

    Also some Nigerians have started to warn the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, (a Southerner), whose Ministry has supervisory role over the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) headed by Hameed Ali (a Northerner), not to expect different treatment from what Adewole experienced in his ministry and NHIS.

    It is really hoped that all Nigerians will be able to see clearly the current fight against corruption to be non-selective, non-bias, and without any ethnic or religious consideration.

    Nobody, irrespective of his or her position or state of origin, or closeness to the power-that-be should be above the law.

    The same set of law in the same circumstances or situations should be applied to all Nigerian, irrespective of ethnic or religious factors.

    Also upturning the decision of the Acting President, when he was in the saddle, without conclusion of investigations to give Yusuf a clean bill, is definitely sending a wrong signal to Nigerians, if the Presidency is still one united family.

    Only a united Presidency can stand together and withstand the storm coming in 2019.

     

  • FG plans N1b support to fight HIV/AIDS through NHIS

    FG plans N1b support to fight HIV/AIDS through NHIS

    The Federal Government said on Monday that it would support the fight against HIV/AIDS programmes through the National Health Insurance Scheme ( NHIS ) in 2018.

    The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said this at the opening of a two-day Nigeria HIV/AIDS intervention symposium in Abuja.

    Adewole said that the support had become important because of the prevalence of the epidemic in the country and the world at large.

    He explained that in 2016, the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS ) report had revealed that 36.7 million people live with HIV and AIDS globally, out of which Nigeria contributed 10 percent of this burden.

    According to him, out of every 10 HIV positive persons in the world is a Nigerian.

    “President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is poised to reverse this ugly trend by making prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection one of the signatory projects in the health sector.

    “I am making this pledge that the Nigerian leadership is committed to supporting all interventions that will ensure sustainable reduction of new HIV and AIDS infections in Nigeria.

    “Nigerian’s HIV and AIDS response plan has equally benefitted from increased government funding.

    “Furthermore, an additional one billion naira has been approved by the National Assembly through National Health Insurance Scheme ( NHIS ), to support the HIV and AIDS programme in the country,” he said.

    The minister said that an estimated 3.2 million people live with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria, which ranked only behind South Africa.

    He said that although no fewer than one million Nigerians presently had means to anti-retroviral treatment, access to care by those in need remained a challenge.

    The health boss advised the participants to imbibe sustainable HIV and AIDS control programmes as well as increase health care service delivery services to achieve meaningful growth.

    He also called for proper data management on the number of persons with HIV to encourage strategic planning, realization of fights against the epidemic and also reduce gaps in the national health sector response.

    The event which attracted stakeholders across the country featured discussion on challenges and way forward for preventive strategies on HIV and AIDS.

    NAN

  • How to save NHIS, by HMOs

    Why did the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) run into troubled water?

    It is because it transformed from being a regulator to a fund manager, Health Maintainance Organisations (HMOs), under the aegis of Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria (HMCAN), have said.

    HMCAN Chairman Dr Tunde Ladele and Publicity Secretary Lekan Ewenla spoke at a media roundtable in Lagos that the scheme’s problems had affected its performance and stalled enrolling. Ladele said: “The  mismanagement started when NHIS was told to warehouse the health insurance fund. Since then, NHIS’ objective has changed from regulating the scheme to marketing and managing the fund. But this is not right according to the role of NHIS as stipulated by NHIS Act 35 of 1999.

    ‘’The Act says HMOs are drivers of the scheme. They are the risk bearers while the NHIS is the regulator. It is because of this that the NHIS has lost its focus and a lot of things went wrong. No regulator should market what it is meant to control.

    “According to the rules, the capitation fee is meant to be prepaid, but now it is postpaid. This is another distortion. Money meant to be paid at the beginning of the month now comes as a postpayment which is why the quality of care given to enrollees is affected.

    “We are suggesting that all premiums paid by enrollees should be warehoused with a National Health Fund possibly with the Central Bank to avoid undue interference and abuse by insurance administrators,” he said.

    Another hole picked by Ladele in the scheme is the lack of equity in the distribution of enrollees from secondary and tertiary health care to the primary health care. ‘’The scheme as a social health scheme can only work if the volume of enrollees is much and it is the role of the NHIS to ensure that this is achieved,” he said.

    He said the appointment of executive secretary of NHIS should not be  political because it needs a technocrat to head same, “for the success of the scheme for all stakeholders. This is because health insurance requires a professional. Somebody who understands the nitty-gritty of healthcare delivery. A person that knows his onions when it comes to health financing.”

    Another problem Ladele identified is the non-existence of a Governing Council, which made it easy for anyone occupying of the position of Executive Secretary (ES) to be a boss not answerable to anyone.

    “We are faced with a situation that was not created by law in which an ES has becomes the sole authority to determine who is an HMO or care provider and even disburses more than what the law stipulates.

    “The situation has become an aberration in which even the excesses of some HMOs could not be punished because there is no collaboration between the regulator and the HMO managers. We call on the public to  forward to us  any HMO that defaults and we will ensure discipline is enforced and the affected get redress. We recommend that the Federal Ministry of Health should constitute a Council for the NHIS to restore the confidence of enrollees in the beleaguered scheme.

    HMCAN also supported the suspension of the ES and probe of the NHIS. ‘’It is time Nigerians knew how well their funds are managed by the regulators. Nigerians should not to lose hope in the scheme. It is the only means to get universal health coverage to every citizen. It is barbaric and archaic for the country to regress into the former situation where Nigerians were paying hospital providers mostly for services not rendered under the health retainership method,” it said.

    It suggested a six-point agenda that could pull the scheme back on track, Ewenla said: “These proposals have been in the burner since 2005. It includes a short, medium and long term. It is long overdue that the National Assembly should consider upgrading the scheme to a full-fledged National Health Insurance Commission that will give room for better regulations, as well as make the scheme mandatory for all Nigerians to buy into and operate, rather than the voluntary exercise. It is only when every Nigerian regardless of status, creed or zone can be covered in the Universal Health Insurance that its maximum benefits can be felt by the large population of the country.

    “If the law makes it compulsory for every employer whether in public or private to enrol their employees, and government also obeys the National Health Act of contributing the one per cent consolidated fund for those who are not covered by the formal or informal sectors, health insurance coverage would have gone a long way to reach several millions of Nigerians.

    “There is need for retirees to benefit from the scheme, as well as more coverage of diseases, especially the non-communicable, which is increasing daily.

    ‘’The long-abandoned ICT platform should be activated. It will ensure proper documentation and enable the NHIS, as well as the HMOs, follow and monitor the fund activities by the HMO. It will guarantee transparency. All the running around for paper works and the feeling of embezzling will be taken care of. This is because all stakeholders and interested parties will be able to monitor via the internet how money is being pooled, disbursed and returned.”

    “Technology has made it simple to regulate a system and monitor same by removing encumbrances, hence, it is only ideal to embrace online administration of the nation’s health insurance scheme as soon as possible,” Ewenla added.

  • Ortom to resolve dispute with Benue varsity lecturers

    Ortom to resolve dispute with Benue varsity lecturers

    Students of the Benue State University, Makurdi on Wednesday begged Governor Samuel Ortom to resolve his dispute with their striking lecturers so that they would return to class.

    Mr. Tersoo Dooga, President of the varsity’s Students Union Government, who led members of the executive council on a visit to the governor, urged Ortom to negotiate with the lecturers “in the interest of the students”.

    “The strike has a negative effect on the students, their parents, guardians and the institution.

    “The strike will also affect the quality of education and frustrate the students as their graduation will be delayed,” he said.

    In his response, Ortom said that government had taken steps to tackle the complaints of the lecturers, and assured the students that the strike would soon be called off.

    He cautioned students against being used as thugs by desperate people, saying that his government had eliminated the vice from Benue.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lecturers had been on strike for more than two months over government’s reluctance to incorporate them into the National Health Insurance Scheme.

    The lecturers also want government to incorporate them into the contributory pension scheme and pay the arrears of their earned allowance from 2009 to 2016.