Manager, SUNU Health Nigeria Ltd., Mr Roberts Ukeje, has commended the Federal Government’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), with the target to ensure every Nigerian have access to qualitative health care.
Ukeje made this known in Abuja on Thursday.
He also thanked the government for extending the NHIS to accommodate extra dependants like aged-parents, people with more than one spouse and those with more than four biological children.
”We are sensitising and enrolling new staff of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) under the NHIS because the scheme is for every Nigerian to benefit from. And being civil servants, it is their right to have access to quality and effective medical care when the need arises and we are here to get them enrolled to access quality health care. With the pandemic right now, the economy is a bit rough and out of pocket medical expenditure is something we want to eliminate totally in Nigeria, for people to have health insurance and be able to access medical care without paying from their pocket. The scheme has been extended to accommodate extra dependants like aged-parent and people with more than one spouse and those with more than four biological children as well. The scheme can actually accommodate every Nigerian”.
Ukeje urged the government to develop the health system of the country, while also appealing to providers to help government improve quality of services by ensuring access to care by the enrolees according to NHIS operational guidelines.
According to him, our expectations basically boil down to the government policies and all hands must be on deck to make sure all Nigerians have access to medical services.
” This is because part of what is running the scheme down is lack of access to care at the point of service. If we all operate according to the NHIS operational guideline, we shall be attaining universal health coverage faster as more people would be encouraged to enroll into the scheme while the government takes care of the vulnerable”.
He pledged the organisation’s commitment towards ensuring quality assurance to make healthcare providers treat people according to world best practice.
He also noted that the Tertiary Institution Social Health Insurance Programme (TISHIP) being provided for an 18-year-old child, who is in a higher institution to continue accessing healthcare services.
The manager said Parents may also enroll their children who are more than 18 years of age as extra dependants.
He said the family health insurance programme was created so families and individuals can pay a token and get health coverage for 12 calendar months.
One of the beneficiaries of NHIS, a staff of NOA, Mr Segun Also, while recounting his experience, said the scheme has provided a platform for family members to have good healthcare with little or no payment.
He praised Sunu Health for giving prompt referrals whenever he had needs for secondary Services.
The scheme has been so good because I really benefited through the scheme like there was a time my son was referred to Kaduna hospital for two weeks without paying anything, we only paid a token, which ordinarily we were supposed to pay a lot of money for.
Also, Mrs Priscilla Chanty, a staff of NOA, said the initiative was laudable as it provided for only 10 per cent of the service with excellent healthcare facilities.
Mr Sylvester Soughul urged government to do more in terms of provision of equipment, drugs and establishing more hospitals, especially in rural area.
