Compulsory health insurance scheme coming, says Osinbajo

PROPOSAL and plan for establishment of a Compulsory Health Insurance Scheme is in the works as part of the Buhari presidency’s Next Level agenda, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday

According to the plan, the government will pay the premium for the poor.

Osinbajo spoke on Tuesday night as guest of honour at the Invest Africa Forum hosted by the publishers of Africa Report magazine at London’s Royal Society hall.

Osinbajo, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said: “On healthcare, to cut the long story short, where we are going is the National Health Insurance. At the moment, we have National Health Insurance, which is not compulsory.

“So, we are looking at compulsory National Health Insurance and we are also looking at how to pay the premium, especially for the poorest.”

The vice president, who took questions from the publishers of Africa Report and members of the audience, explained that the plan is to “have a co-payment arrangement”.

Osinbajo said: “Government will provide payments of premium or free medical care for 40 per cent, which is the poorest segment, and the other 60 per cent will be compulsory co-payments for formal and informal workers.

“The resources, the money from the National Health Insurance, is the way to fund medical care. At the moment, most people who seek medical help pay out of pockets. Obviously, that’s one of the reasons why we have the poor health indices at the moment.

“So, we think that health insurance will resource healthcare and help greatly, in not just rewarding our healthcare practitioners, but also in resourcing the hospitals and helping most of our people to get the kind of health care that they may need.”

Responding to a question from a member of the audience on the prospects of the Petroleum Industry Bill, the vice president said it could still be signed into law, after all the necessary amendments have been made, possibly before the end of the 8th Assembly.

“We hope that the bill will become law before the end of the 8th Assembly,” Osinbajo said.

Answering another question from the moderator of the forum, Mr. Patrick Smith, who is the Editor-in-Chief of The Africa Report, on the chances of the APC winning the forthcoming 2019 elections, Osinbajo said in the 16 years of the PDP rule, the party had nothing tangible to show Nigerians despite earning over $382 billion in oil revenue between 2010 to 2014.

“The PDP has not cured itself of corruption,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to ignore the party in the coming elections.

Osinbajo then urged the Nigerian electorate not to listen to the party in the 2019 election because they have nothing to offer them.

The vice president noted that since returning to power in 2015, “the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government has invested over N2.7trillion on infrastructural growth, at a time the country was earning less.

On the privatisation of some of the public enterprises, the vice president observed that the exercise, especially in the electricity power sector, was “poorly done” under the PDP previous governments.

He referred to a trending video of a 2014 interview where the PDP presidential candidate actually confessed to the failure of the past PDP presidencies in the power sector.