Consider Making Health Insurance a Requirement to Open Bank Account, NHIA Tells CBN
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is carrying out advocacy visits to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other key government agencies, as part of efforts to ensure successful implementation of the new insurance law which makes insurance compulsory for all.
Emmanuel Ononokpono, Public Affairs Manager, NHIA, said the Authority is advocating to the CBN to consider making health insurance one of the requirements for Nigerians to open a bank account.
Health insurance according to Ononokpono is the best way to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all Nigerians, hence the Authority is deploying strategic and innovative methods to ensure that all Nigerians are enrolled.
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He mentioned this on Friday at a three-day conference on “Universal Health Coverage (UHC): How Can Nigeria Get it Right – the Role of the Media”, organised by the Association of Nigerian Health Journalists (ANHEJ) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Akwanga, Nasarawa state.
“Every Nigerian must have health insurance, but we can’t stand on the streets to compel Nigerians, we will look for innovative approaches. We are considering many options.
“We are hoping that we will tell the Central Bank to for instance issue a circular that when a persons wants to open an account, he or she will in addition to their drivers licence electricity bill, show their health insurance, that’s part of the things we are looking at, it’s part of the advocacy we are hoping to do. We are still engaging innovatively,” he said.
Ononokpono lamented that only less than 15 percent of Nigerians, mostly government employees have health insurance while the larger population pay out of their pockets.
