NHIS Proposes Establishment of National Health Insurance Commission

The management of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has said it is working to effect an amendment to the Act to set up the Fund to transform it into a health insurance commission.

 According to NHIS, the amendment bill before the National Assembly which has passed the second reading is seeking to make health insurance mandatory and to get all in the formal and informal sectors at the national, state and local council level to be part of it.

Speaking to journalists at the end the first day of the retreat organised by the NHIS, state health insurance scheme and other key stakeholders in Nasarawa State on Wednesday, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, said unless the law setting up the agency is amended to strengthen and expand its scope, it cannot lead to the achievement of the much desired universal health coverage.

The move by the NHIS came just as one of the key stakeholders, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said there are indications that the operations of the health insurance scheme is becoming more transparent and accountable.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, who was at the retreat with his counterpart from the Trade Union Congress (TUC), said being transparent is one of the best ways to engender confidence and trust of the public that would in turn increase the subscriber base.

NHIS Proposes Establishment of National Health Insurance Commission

Speaking on the amendment of the NHIS Act, Sambo said the present law permits NHIS to register federal civil servants and a few private sector individuals who voluntarily subscribe to the scheme.

The NHIS boss, who gave number of workers presently covered by the health insurance scheme as 3.5 million, said the situation has not only tied the hands of the NHIS to a few segment of the Nigerian populace but has limited its impact as well.

He said: "Under the mandatory insurance scheme, everybody will join and then you have the money coming from the public and private sector, and you have contributions coming from rich persons. With that kind of funding, you can now begin the journey towards achieving universal health coverage.

"So the law is to be amended to reflect that which will even convert the NHIS to a commission, and when that commission is established and its mandate is based on compulsory health insurance, then everybody will subscribe."

Sambo stated further that with the expansion of the scheme, it would attract a large pool of fund, which will in turn lead to cross-subsidisation.

"The rich will subsidise the poor, and there is a tendency you will have a surplus fund with which you will use to give and create subsidy for those who cannot pay," he added.