During a three-day meeting of the Second Board and Management of ProHealth, Health Management Organization (HMO) held in Nasarawa, Maureen Allagoa, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), revealed the importance of insurance as a key component to solving the numerous obstacles confronting the healthcare system in the country. Allagoa maintains that the relevance of it in Nigeria cannot be overstated because it mitigates the effects of the sector’s recurrent underfunding.
Speaking at the event, titled “Nigeria Health Insurance Ecosystem: The Place of ProHealth HMO Limited,” he said that it would protect Nigerians from financial bankruptcy by guaranteeing a pool of funds to meet their medical expenses. He remarked that the organization is responsible for serving as a pathway between Nigerians and the care providers by coordinating the supply of these essential services, given that it has a network of over 800 medical providers, over 50,000 people who are enrolled and one million successfully trained individuals.
Lack of funding, low coverage and facilities impedes the sector.
Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, said that the gathering was an opportunity for everyone to talk about problems in the Nigerian health insurance sector and offer the best potential solutions. The Minister, who NSITF Board Chairman Chief Emmanuel Nwosu represented, said everyone understands that the sector has suffered over the years, such as not having enough funding, low coverage, and lack of facilities. Because of these problems, it’s hard for many Nigerians to get good, affordable health care. But the rise of HMOs has helped close the gap in a significant way.
ProHealth HMO has been at the forefront of providing access to quality care for Nigerians by partnering with healthcare providers to provide affordable services to its enrollees. The retreat presents an opportunity for them to deliberate on the challenges faced by the insurance sector in providing affordable services and how ProHealth HMO can continue to innovate and provide quality services to its enrollees. He urges the retreat participants to be open-minded and committed to finding practical solutions to the challenges.
Social security usage will enhance personal care distribution.
Similarly, Prof. Gabriel Okenwa, Chairman of the Board of Directors at ProHealth, said that one of the approaches to make sure that Nigerians have access to good health care is to put social security first. Okenwa says this is to let the world know they’ve grown up and are prepared. He points out that appropriate medical and services for Nigerians are ensured by the provision of the constitution of Nigeria section 17, amended in 1999. Social security is the only way to make this goal come true. On top of this, NSITF is in charge of social security as the first social security organization.
However, it costs a lot to maintain a fully functional system with modern medical facilities. One of their subsidiaries, the ProHealth HMO, is leading the charge in implementing the social insurance scheme supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO). He declared that all Nigerians are strongly encouraged to adopt and subscribe to this strategy, as it is the key to establishing an economically viable, publicly accessible, and universally available delivery system in the nation. This is the best course of action regarding Nigerians’ general well-being.
All citizens need to have access to health insurance.
The government has ensured that all Nigerians have access to excellent healthcare at an affordable price by mandating this insurance for all citizens, especially for every worker and employer in the commercial and private sectors, under the Nigeria Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Act of 2022. Similarly to its parent company, NSITF, a pioneering social security organization in Nigeria and Africa, ProHealth occupies a pivotal position in the Nigerian health insurance ecosystem as a top maintenance company.
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