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The National Health Insurance Authority has said individuals and groups can have access to health insurance through the Group, Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Programme, that will save them from paying for treatment when the need arises.
The Coordinator, NHIA Yaba State Office, Mrs Rita Chukwu, spoke during an event organised for MDAs with the theme, ‘Universal health coverage-Mitigating the challenges of healthcare service delivery’ in Lagos.
The event was attended by some workers of MDAs, health practitioners and enrollees among others.
Explaining, she said, “We have the Group Individual Family Social Health Insurance. Anybody can get enrolled under that programme. All you need to do is to pay N45,000 per annum and with that amount, you can add two people to it; maybe your spouse and a child.
“For you to enroll, the processes is either you go through online to enroll or you come to any of our offices.”
When an individual or group get registered, she added, “All they need to do after the registration is to wait for 90 days, which is a waiting period because we make payments to Health Maintenance Organisations quarterly.”
The event, she noted, was organised to enlighten its enrollees on their benefit package under NHIA, and to know their rights.
Dr. Hameed Obani of the Standards and Quality Assurance Division of NHIA Yaba State Office, explaining the essence of having health insurance, said, “Naturally when people have access to health care, they are easily diagnosed when they feel unwell. They can see a doctor and their conditions get investigated and they get well, and they are productive.”
Reverend Sister Christiana Efengbe of St. Raphael Divine Mercy Specialist Hospita, explaining that having health insurance is not expensive, said it availed an individual access to treatment when it was needed.
The General Manager, United Healthcare International HMO, Mr Olayiwola Lasisi, said many Nigerians still lacked health insurance cover.
He said it was important to increase the insurance pool by ensuring that more Nigerians joined the NHIA.

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