The Federal government has been urged to ensure that all Nigerians are captured under the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, in order to ensure the attainment of universal healthcare in the country, even as the government was tasked to provide more Primary Healthcare Centres in the country.
Giving the assertion recently, the President of the Society of Occupational and Environmental Health Physicians of Nigeria, SOEHPON, Dr . Okon Akiba, during the official opening of D-Rabboni Hospitals Ltd., Festac, Lagos, said the need to ensure overall health and wellbeing of Nigerians was non-negotiable and could only be assured through provision of innovative and dynamic medical services.
According to Akiba, who is the MD/CEO, D-Rabboni Hospitals Ltd: “The Federal government should ensure that everyone is covered by health insurance so that there can be enough money in the pool of finances.
“Because of our antecedents we know that health is business, so if there is enough money in the pool, then everyone that is registered and has a health plan would have access to healthcare.” – he said
Declaring the centre open, former Governor of Cross Rivers State, Mr Donald Duke, who tasked the government on providing more PHCs, said it was at the primary care level that Nigerians in the communities could benefit more from comprehensive healthcare services so that the national mortality rates would drop and quality of life would improve.
