World National Health Insurance Scheme NHIS

World National Health Insurance Scheme {NHIS}:

This is one of the accredited by the NHIS to administer the government-sponsored health insurance scheme designed to provide access to effective and affordable healthcare in some advanced countries of the world.

The national health insurance scheme exists in more advanced economies like Britain. The British introduced a comprehensive national health insurance scheme in 1994.

Definition and brief History of NHIS:

A national health insurance scheme may be defined as a channel or mechanism for making healthcare services available to the masses and the attended cost incurred being redistributed to the members of the community.

It is a body corporate established under Act 35 of 1999 by the federal government of Nigeria to improve the health of all Nigeria at affordable cost. In most cases, the members of the community who will contribute to the healthcare cost will be clearly specified.

A paper titled “Health Insurance: A practical approach to health care financing in A Developing Economy” delivered by Dr. E. M. Umeze – Eronini at the Nigerian Medical Association Conference held in Calabar in 1981 appeared to have triggered off government thinking in finding alternative modes of health care financing in Nigeria.

Since then several committees of experts had been commissioned to study the situation and make recommendations to the government, including one chaired by the Managing Director of National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria {NICON} Mr. Yinka Lijadu in 1984. In spite of these efforts, the scheme has not yet taken off. However, the financial implications of such a scheme and other logistics issues have to be very carefully articulated to ensure a hitch-free takeoff.