IMMEDIATE Past Chairman, Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP), Lagos Branch, Dr. Makinde Akinlemibola has described health insurance as critical to the survival of the nation’s health sector, especially at a time the country’s economy is experiencing some headwinds.
Makinde, who stated this at the opening ceremony of the association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), held in Lagos, recently, stated that healthcare usually remains the first casualty of any depressed economy such as Nigeria’s; hence the need to have an effective health insurance scheme in place to enable the poor have access to quality healthcare.
According to him, such insurance allows for pulling together of resources from the rich and the poor, thereby making it possible for those that can not pay, to still afford be attended to medically.
Besides giving the poor such lifelines, he stated, health insurance also allows practitioners to plan, since they can predict their expected income at the end of the month, thereby giving them the opportunity to give their patients quality health care, while also planning adequately for their staff.
On the need for practitioners to embrace technology in their operations, Makinde argued that unless resources are pulled together in form of health insurance, only a negligible few, among practitioners, would be able to afford the cost that goes with digital operations.
“Digital is capital intensive. It’s not easy for individuals. But, that is where health insurance comes in, because you will have an idea of your income every month.”
With this, you can now set aside some of such funds, in order to make sure your facility is relevant because digital healthcare care is very key and it’s important that we key into it.
“As things are, only 10 percent of members can afford it right now. But because of that possibility of knowing how much income is coming in every month, through health insurance, you can easily get facility to treat them. The bottom-line is that it is key and important for our practice,” he stated.
The ANPMP boss explained that the theme of the conference, “Quality Health-care Delivery In A Resource-Constrained Nation”, stemmed from the need to discuss Year 2024, which, he stated, had been both challenging and transformative for medical practice in Nigeria and across the globe.
He identified healthcare funding as one of the most pressing challenges, bedeviling the sector, with government and non-governmental organisations struggling to meet the recommended budgetary allocations for healthcare.
Akinlemibola therefore called on the private sector to play a significant role in funding healthcare; since it is becoming increasingly evident that health-care cannot be sustainably funded by governments, NGOs alone.
