CEO lists constraints to health insurance adoption in Nigeria

BY NWATU CHISOM

Tokunbo Ali, chief executive officer of Leadway Health, a health maintenance organisation, has identified inadequate government policies and low private sector penetration as major constraints to the adoption of health insurance in Nigeria.

Speaking at an event marking the 40th anniversary of R-Jolad Hospital in Lagos, Ali lamented that the health insurance industry stands at four percent and is dominated by the public sector, while a huge gap yearns to be filled regarding partnerships between the private and public sectors.

In his remarks on the measures HMOs are taking to reduce the cost of accessing health insurance to boost adoption, Ali pointed out that a lot of HMOs are not making profits but only doing cash flow accounting, a fact contrary to speculations in the public domain.

“Some people have concluded that we HMOs are in profit, but sincerely, there is no such thing because a lot of HMOs are doing cash flow accounting and are not in profit in any way. All the funds we take as premium, we pay out to hospitals and incur losses. So, the question of reducing the cost is not within us, it’s not something we can handle.” he noted.

“What HMO does is that whatever amount of money is collected as premium, about 80 to 90 percent of it always goes into hospital bills, hospital administration and medical cost, leaving only 10 percent or less that goes to administration and other things. So please discard rumours that HMOs are in profit,” he noted.

The insurance analyst explained that 80 to 90 percent of whatever is collected as premium by the organisations is spent on hospital bills, hospital administration and medical cost, leaving only 10 per cent or less for administration and other things.

Ali enjoined the government to reinforce the right policies to develop the health insurance industry, noting that the private sector was willing to support and give more care to more people.

According to him, one of the most important things to be considered in health insurance is the Income Act, which states that an employer of labour, who has over five employees, must take up a pension scheme for those employees. This, he suggested, should be implemented in the health sector.

Speaking in the same vein, Funsho Oladipo, the founder of R-Jolad Hospital, said the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme has not yielded the desired result as it is not affordable to the masses, while only about five percent of the Nigerian population has access to health insurance.

Oladipo also reiterated the firm’s commitment to making quality healthcare delivery affordable to the general public, especially the poor masses.