The Chief Medical Director of Rock Foundation Hospital, Awka, Anambra State, Chukwudi Njelita, has called on governments to increase access to healthcare services for Nigerians by making health insurance free.

Mr Njelita, a private practitioner, said in Awka on Wednesday that the number of out-of-pocket patients in the country was still alarming in spite of the existence of various health insurance schemes.

He said that though the awareness of health insurance was high, the subscription level among Nigerians was still low due to the inability of most people to pay insurance premiums especially among rural and low-income families.

The expert commended the federal and the Anambra State governments for their health insurance initiatives and efforts to bring healthcare closer to the people through a health insurance scheme.

He said that in spite of the sensitisation, people had not fully embraced the scheme due to poverty.

He said, “The subscription level for health insurance is still low; I can say that while the awareness level is as high as 80 per cent, enrolment is about 20 per cent judging by what we do here. Out-of-pocket patients are still very much more than the insurance patients because insurance patients are known as contained in the list, but out-of-pocket patients are in the record and those who do not even come to the hospital. The federal government must step in because many people are unable to pay premiums which qualify them for the services. People who are not civil servants constitute the greater number, and they are not in the scheme, it will take about N4 trillion to enrol 140 million people.’’

Mr Njelita said that the healthcare delivery system was becoming expensive in Nigeria and called for the government’s support to enable the operators to render services at an affordable cost.

He said brain drain in the sector may not end soon unless the remuneration for health workers becomes better and the capital for setting up a health facility is affordable. 

He stated, “Cost of service delivery is increasing by the day, considering the cost of medicines, equipment and wages of health workers, which must be enough to keep them in the hospital. Most medicines and diagnostic equipment are imported, so their cost is affected by the foreign exchange values. We also have the problem of the high cost of energy, either with diesel or the public power sources and these are some of the reasons running private hospitals has become difficult and many have shut down.’’
(NAN)