The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme [NHIS], Prof Mohammed Sambo, on Wednesday said enrollees of the NHIS and the State Supported Health Insurance [SSHIS] would come under one roof to ensure a central coordinating system.

Speaking during a strategic retreat of NHIS, SSHIS and other key stakeholders in Abuja, Sambo noted the idea would make health players to contribute quality decisions towards achieving Universal Health Coverage based on knowledge of those who were statutorily covered under the formal sector and those not yet covered.

He said,

“This retreat brings all the actors – federal and states, under the health insurance scheme to come together to create a platform that will enable us move towards Universal Health Coverage.

“The NHIS is operating a 2004 law which is solely focused on the formal sector. All the monies coming to the NHIS is from contributions from the salary of the public sector workers. Even if the NHIS is performing at its best, it wouldn’t have covered more than the people in the formal sector in Nigeria.

“The NHIS law initially and up till today, is still a non-mandatory. When NHIS started, states and local governments were supposed to join the health insurance scheme. But because it was non-mandatory, states and local governments refused to join.

“So it was only left for the federal and those willing in the private sector to join. Because of that problem, health insurance system was decentralized. Therefore, every state has its own health insurance scheme to cover its formal sector.

“But if it is made mandatory, it, therefore, means that they will make contributions to the pool of the national insurance scheme, and then you have a large pool. When you have such a large pool of funds, you do what is called cross-subsidization. The rich will subsidize the poor, and there is a tendency you will have surplus funds with which you will use to give and create subsidy for those who cannot pay.”

He added that the law had been amended to reflect NHIS as a commission that would establish a mandate based on compulsory health insurance for all.

He added,

“The position of the amendment now is that because the last senate had passed it, it was not assented to by the President and so the National Assembly has re-presented it. In fact it has gone to the second reading and they have called for public hearing next week”.