Pensioners Gain Inclusion Into NHIA Scheme

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has made provisions in its scheme to include and provide health insurance to pensioners in the country.

Disclosing this to the Executive Secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) in Abuja, the Director-General of NHIA, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, added that extending health insurance to pensioners was consistent with international best practices.

According to him, the most effective care for aging persons was to give them unqualified access to affordable and quality healthcare. Coverage for pensioners, he noted, is a critical aspect of attaining universal health coverage, adding that the government is favourably disposed to ensuring that persons who have served the country for a better part of their lives should have access to care without further financial burden.

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On how the initiative will be funded, Sambo explained that healthcare must be paid for because it is impossible for it to be free, adding that support of relevant government agencies would be required to achieve sustainable financing.

He noted that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Department of State Services (DSS) were already paying for healthcare coverage of their retirees, and that funding healthcare for pensioners was critical to institutionalising the initiative and making it enduring.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, highlighted the plight of pensioners around the country, pointing out that the law setting up PTAD gives leverage to the agency to explore ways of improving the welfare of pensioners.

At the meeting, both agencies resolved to raise a bilateral committee to fine-tune the protocol of enrolling the 237,000 pensioners under PTAD for health insurance.