In an effort to strengthen National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS,the House of Representatives has ordered its committee on Healthcare Services to investigate allegations of gross inefficiency in the operation of the Scheme.
This directive emanated from the motion by Hon. Kwamoti Bitrus Laori (PDP, Adamawa) alleging extremely poor service from Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) as well as private and public healthcare facilitates.
The lawmaker said that the National Health Insurance Act (NHIA) 2022, which replaced the National Health Insurance Scheme Act, seeks to promote, regulate, and integrate health insurance schemes, secure mandatory health insurance for every Nigerian and legal resident, and establish a fund for subsidy on health insurance coverage for vulnerable persons and payment of health insurance premiums for indigents.
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Laori said that since the passage of the National Health Insurance Act of 2022, the scheme has enjoyed the cooperation of the National Assembly in terms of annual budgetary allocations for it to perform optimally in delivering its mandate to Nigerians, with the primary objective to ensure affordability of health care for all, especially the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.
He alleged that enrollees in urban and semi-urban settlements have received extremely poor service from Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs), both private and public healthcare facilitates, which is distressing given the harsh reality that Nigerians are faced with the removal of fuel subsidy and other economic policies of the government.
The Lawmaker said further that the attitude of medical personnel and healthcare service providers treats enrollee patients as trash, subjecting Nigerians to unnecessary delay with the aim of frustrating patients from accessing services while the HMOs smile to bank monthly for services poorly rendered, a situation many Nigerians describe as dehumanizing and fraudulent.
According to him, some enrollees have recently chosen to pay in full for medical services in establishments other than the HMO they subscribed to, to avoid needless stress and harassment that characterize the enrollee patients like beggars devoid of human dignity and respect;
He said such a scenario could further undermine Nigerians’ trust in the programme if left unchecked considering how crucial a healthy population is to the country’s productivity. The purportedly dehumanising treatment of enrollees and the regular out-of-stock or shortage of necessary medications and consumables in the majority of HMOs require an investigation.
Laori expressed concern that wherever possible, enrolled patients are made to purchase out-of-stock drugs and consumables outside; they often do so without a refund or any form of compensation from the HMOs, which raises questions about the integrity of the scheme.
He is worried about the growing allegations of abysmal service expressed by Nigerians with different unpleasant accounts of frustrations and dehumanised treatments in various HMOs across the nation;
The Lawmaker said that unchecked behaviour of this kind would amount to fraud and a gross disservice to the Nigerian citizens on whose behalf the government is funding the programme, as well as further eroding the citizens’ faith in the current administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.