Four takeaways from summit on financing Nigeria’s healthcare
Basic Health Care Provision Fund
1. The Senate to include the Basic Health Care Provision Fund in the 2018 budget.
John Enoh who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance was the first to
speak on the move by the Senate to include the Basic Health Care
Provision Fund in the 2018 budget.
"there is no provision yet for it in the 2018 budget. “We are quite hopeful that will be done before the budget is appropriated.”
"there is no provision yet for it in the 2018 budget. “We are quite hopeful that will be done before the budget is appropriated.”
Minister of Health, Mr. Adewole said “if the Basic Health Care Provision
Fund is implemented, the National Assembly has done the country proud.
More than 75 per cent of the population of the country spend out of pocket for health services
SEN. Tejuoso said the National Assembly is proposing to amend the NHIS
Act, adding that old people will be included in the new arrangement of
the NHIS.
Kolawole Owoka, the Chairman of the Health
and Management Care Association of Nigeria, the umbrella body
of Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) pushed the bulk of blame of
poor coverage of Nigerians under the scheme on the regulators.He said the structure of NHIS was not followed the way it was constructed since inception in 2005 because the regulators did not do a good job in monitoring the scheme
There is an ongoing amendment of the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Central to this bill, which seeks to repeal the National Health
Insurance Scheme Act and enact the National Health Insurance Commission
Bill, is the need to ensure a more effective implementation of a health
insurance policy that enhances greater access to health care services
for all Nigerians.
3. Poor funding for health in the annual budget
Mr. Tejuoso spoke on the ‘Abuja
declaration’. He decried that Nigeria is yet to provide up to five per
cent of its budget on health.
“I and the health minister should be held
accountable if enough fund is not allotted to health in the 2018 budget
appropriation,” Mr. Tejuoso said.
The health minister bemoaned the poor
funding of the health sector and the health budget saying the federal
and state government should increase spending on health.
Nigeria hosted the Heads of State of member
countries of the African Union (AU) in 2001. There the “Abuja
Declaration” was made with the leaders pledging to commit at least 15
per cent of their annual budgets to improving their health sector.
Since the declaration, Nigeria has not
attained the pledged funding benchmark as the federal government has
never voted more than six per cent of its annual budget to the health
sector.
4.On implementation of the National Health Act:
Eniola Bello, Managing Director, THISDAY
newspaper, said implementing the National Health Act is the way forward
to achieving universal health coverage.
The health minister said the National Health Act was passed in 2016 with a policy on improved Primary Health Services.
He said if the National Assembly includes
the Basic Health Care Provision Fund in the 2018 budget, the
implementation of the act will substantially move towards completion.
Mr. Adewole had in an interview with PREMIUM
TIMES said all parts of the act have been implemented except the Basic
Health Care Provision Fund, a position the Nigerian Medical Association
refuted.
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