The House of Representatives presented plans on Tuesday to investigate the implementation of the National Medical Insurance Plan throughout the country.
The resolution approved the sequel to adopting a motion on a matter of urgent public importance sponsored by Hon. Billy Osawaru, who expressed serious concern about the public protest about the scheme, as well as the challenges faced by health maintenance organizations (HMO).
In its main debate, the Hon. Osawaru noted that the scheme established in 1999 seeks to “provide access to good health services for Nigerians and protect families from financial difficulties due to enormous medical invoices.
“The Chamber is also aware that said NHIS Law of 1999 was replaced by the Law of the National Health Insurance Authority of Nigeria (NHIA) 2022 that requires mandatory health insurance for all Nigerians and legal residents, and aims to achieve universal health coverage.
“This act provides a framework for a comprehensive, accessible and affordable health system with key objectives to promote, regulate and integrate health insurance schemes, as well as guarantee access to quality medical care for all.
“The Chamber points out that NHIS hires the HMOs to provide these medical care services to the beneficiaries who are workers of the federal and state government, private sector workers and other Nigerians and these HMO, in turn, hire medical care providers (hospitals, clinics) to offer these services to the beneficiaries of the NHIS.
“The house is informed that despite its potential, the NHIS and the HMO have faced numerous challenges, including low coverage, inappropriate financing and the provision of inefficient services, since many Nigerians continue to face significant barriers to access quality medical care due to financial limitations and inadequate medical care infrastructure.
“The house is concerned that despite the efforts to increase coverage and improve well -being through quality health provision, only about 5% of Nigerians are registered in the NHIS and said 5% of Nigerians face numerous challenges, such as limited quality services to medications, despite the beneficiaries of medications outside the measurements of existence or lack of quality medications High incidents of the quality of payments despite medicines to medicines.
“The Chamber is also concerned that despite the government's efforts to properly support the NHIS, its financing is generally considered inappropriate and this causes delay in payment to medical care suppliers (hospital/clinics) by health maintenance organizations (HMO) and this in turn affects the quality of rendered services to the beneficiaries.
“The House is Further Worried That This Dears in Payment to Healthcare Providers by Hmos, The Hospitals and Clinic, Who Render before Services Now Choose To Play With The Health of The Citizens Which in Sub sums result to an Avoidable Death of Subscribers Always Exhibited Such as Choosing the Kind, Quality or Rate of Drugs They Administer to NHis Subscribers, Limiting Them to particular Doctor Or General Practitioners Even When One Requirements to see to consultation, limit the type of X -rays, the scanning test to do and, above all, the beneficiaries or subscribers of NHIS will not be covered for some Surgeries as low as the Cesarean section (CS) in childbirth and appendectomy (to eliminate appendix).
“The house is concerned that if the challenges of the NHIS and the HMOs are not addressed, the Nigerians who are the beneficiaries will continue to face barriers to access quality medical care services, exacerbating health disparities and will force the payment of pocket for medical care services that will increase financial difficulties.”
To this end, the Chamber ordered the Director General/Executive Director of the NHIA (DG/CEO), to appear and communicate with the Health Services Committee of the House of Representatives to determine and examine the impact of the NHIS on the health provision in Nigeria, the challenges and the possible solutions for all of them.
The Chamber also ordered the joint committees of health services and health institutions to investigate the reasons behind the low performance of the NHIS in Nigeria, identify areas of improvement and recommend solutions in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the NHIS and inform the camera within four weeks.