November 15, 2019. The National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS- Nigeria’s premier think tank, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently repeal the National Health Insurance, NHIS Act and replace it with the National Health Insurance Commission Bill to make healthcare delivery in Nigeria more flexible, accommodating of all citizens.
This call was made during the third National Summit on Legislative Network for Universal Health Coverage organized by the National Assembly with the support of Development Research and Projects Centre, under the Partnership for Advocacy in child and family health at scale in Abuja on Thursday.
President Muhammadu Buhari has asked NIPSS to study healthcare delivery as the case study for the 2019 Senior Executive Course 41 of the National Institute with the theme “Finding Solutions to Funding Universal Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria.”
The Institute represented by Muhammed Gumi, disclosed that one of the major findings of the one year study is that adequate funding is a critical catalyst for boosting access to quality healthcare to all citizens. According to him, virtually all the countries visited during the study spend greater proportion of their budget on health in addition to putting in place effective policy frameworks and institutional mechanisms for utilization and oversight.
‘’It is important to acknowledge the prevailing fiscal environment in Nigeria and competing demands on limited resources at the disposal of the government, however, poor budgetary allocation to health, inadequate and untimely disbursement, absence of risk protection, fragmentation and duplication of funding pools resulting in inequitable access to quality healthcare services leaving the socio-economically disadvantaged and vulnerable groups excluded, and other barriers are weak monitoring and financial tracking mechanisms leading to leakages of resources are some of the challenges we established is bedeviling healthcare delivery in Nigeria,” he said.
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