Health Insurance Mass Enrolment Will Transform Hospital Facilities – Operator

The managing director and chief executive officer of Ultimate Health, Health Management Organisation, Otunba Lekan Ewenla, has said mass enrolment in health insurance will transform facilities in Nigerian hospitals and improve the country’s poor health indices.

Ewenla, in a statement yesterday, commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration for the steps it has taken to expand health insurance in the country.

He said, “The major landmark in this year 2025 was the pronouncement of the Mr President on the need for all outstanding ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government to immediately enrol their workers in the public sector health insurance programme.

“The secretary to the government of the federation issued a circular on 14th September, 2025, to all MDAs and other critical stakeholders, clarifying that the federal government ministries and agencies are mandated to enrol their workforce in the public sector health insurance programme.

“I want to clarify that the mandate was specifically targeted at the income-generating federal institutions that have, over the years, enrolled their staff in the private health insurance programme instead of the public sector social health insurance programme,” he said.

Explaining the need for mass enrolment in health insurance, he said it would lead to better funding of the health sector and change the poor health indices of the country.

Ewnela said, “It will lead to accelerated transformation of our healthcare infrastructure as premium payment across millions of Nigerians will translate to availability of multi-trillion naira in the healthcare industry, which will automatically translate to huge investment in the sector.

Why Nigerian doctors and nurses are leaving the country for other nations is not because of anything apart from the fact that those countries they are going have introduced mandatory health insurance long time ago and it is working. It has equally enhanced the take-home pay of every worker in that sector.”

According to him, out-of-pocket payment for health care has become old-fashioned globally, adding that health insurance will make health care accessible to Nigerians

Ewenla stated, “The idea of introducing health insurance in Nigeria was to make health care affordable, accessible, and equitable. Globally, people cannot afford to pay out of pocket. Health care is not cheap. It is quite expensive. That is why the health insurance concept is designed to cross-subsidise the medical needs of the poor and the sick, with those of the rich and the healthy. The idea behind the introduction of health insurance in Nigeria is to change the narration of our poor health indices by ensuring that people have unhindered access to quality care.”

He explained that it is the responsibility of every employer of labour to take care of the medical needs of their workforce.

“It is not that the employers are doing their workforce a favour by enrolling them in the health insurance. The law specifies that once you are an employer of labour of five or more workers, you are expected to pay medical allowance. Enrollment in the health insurance is basically the conversion of the medical allowance to a health insurance premium for your workforce.

“It does not translate to employers of labour going to borrow funds to pay for health insurance. It is whatever is being paid to the individual worker that it meant to be converted to the health insurance premium for him or her. It is not going to create any hole in any employer’s pocket,” he stated.

“Health insurance is basically pooling the health risks of people together and providing those services that are defined for them at an agreed amount or premium per person, per annum, while health care service is a process of accessing care in a designated facility at a tariff fixed by the service provider.

“While health care is on the concurrent list in our constitution, health insurance is on the exclusive list. The regulator for the programme is the NHIA. It is only NHIA that can regulate it. No state government can regulate it,” Ewenla said.

Addressing concern about health insurance, he stated, “The basic plan is very rich in contents. What that means is that everybody now needs to go back to the drawing board and begin to enrol their workforce in the basic plan.”