Why Nigeria should embrace health insurance, by NDDC Acting Managing Director

Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei, has canvassed a comprehensive health insurance scheme for the country.

He justified NDDC’s decision to give financial support to the nine oil-producing states to fight Coronavirus disease, COVID-19, adding that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, health insurance has become imperative as the key to universal health coverage, which he said was everyone’s desire.

“For us to get health insurance to work, there is a need to make it compulsory for all Nigerians. It does not work well when it is voluntary. In all the countries where it has worked well, it is mandatory.

“In the United Kingdom (UK), as long as you work, you contribute to health insurance, but in Nigeria, it has been difficult even with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which has been able to cover only five per cent of the country’s population.”

Pondei explained that the commission wanted to procure ventilators to be distributed to the oil-producing states, but most of the people who assured that they could supply the equipment, do not have them in the country.

He lamented that ventilators are now in short supply even in the United States of America (USA), adding, “The prices have also skyrocketed. Besides, since the states had made plans to get the ventilators, we thought it was better to support them financially.”

Pondei said the way forward for country was to urgently increase the number of testing centres across the country, pointing out that the NDDC initially attempted to procure some equipment and materials to help in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, but with the lockdown and the attendant logistic problems in the country, the commission decided to support the states with money.

“It is not our place to tell them how to build their capacity. Each state knows what their challenges are, the facilities they have and which ones they require. The NDDC is also carrying out enlightenment campaigns. We are also extending support to youths and women groups across the states,” he added.

He noted that the world was dealing with a pandemic that has spread beyond international boundaries and overwhelmed quite a number of countries.

According to him, the key thing was containment and this required finding out those that had been exposed and tracing their contacts, so as to put them under some form of quarantine.

Pondei said much as testing was key it was also a problem because no nation had the capacity to test everybody, noting, “Some nations have made the mistake of acquiring test kits that have ended up being useless. Right now, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is doing a good job, expanding the testing centres and getting requisite equipment.”

He also pointed out that most of the kits being used were not efficient and may not be able to detect COVID-19 adding, “Because everybody has one way or another been exposed to Coronavirus and those kits just test for antibodies that already exist in most of us.”