Ogun’s health insurance mirrors Nigeria’s woeful enrollment

Only about 150,000 people have enrolled in Ogun state’s health insurance programme, just about 2% of the state’s population, the government said, mirroring a national problem that continues to threaten healthcare delivery.

Health commissioner Tomi Coker said on Monday in Abeokuta, the capital, that despite efforts to drive enrollment, workers in the state have persistently ignored their insurance programme.

Still, the bulk of the few that have registered is in the informal sector, she said.

“Since the health insurance was launched by His Excellency, the governor, in 2022, we have only enrolled 65,000 in the formal sector,” the commission said, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.

“However, the informal sector which we haven’t even launched is engaging more, having enrolled like 90,000 people, making about 150,000 Ogun state residents.”

Like Nigeria, like Ogun

Health insurance enrollment in Nigeria is generally very low, with estimates ranging from 3% to 5% of the population. This means that the vast majority of Nigerians lack any form of health insurance, leaving them vulnerable to financial hardship in the event of illness or injury.

Poverty makes it difficult for many Nigerians to afford the premiums for health insurance. Also, many Nigerians are either unaware of the benefits of health insurance, lack knowledge of how to enroll in the scheme, or have lost faith in the healthcare system.

There is also the problem of a large portion of the Nigerian workforce being employed in the informal sector, where there is no mandatory health insurance coverage.

The problem with Ogun

In Ogun, the health commissioner said the informal sector is interestingly doing better than the formal sector. The formal slow has been slow at enrolling because of their powerful unions, she said.

Ms Coker said the government tried to encourage workers and met with them repeatedly but the unions wanted the law changed to ensure deducted funds were remitted straight to the health insurance fund.

“We’ve been to the House of Assembly; we’ve amended the law that set up the health insurance to ensure their requests have been attended to, but in spite of these, about 50,000 civil servants are yet to engaged,” she said.

“What is happening now is that civil servants are now buying the insurance individually, which is not efficient for us.

“We’ve had several media publicity and road shows in all four zones of the state. His Excellency also introduced the free health insurance for pregnant women,” she said.

Finding solutions

The commissioner advised citizens to tap into the benefits provided by the insurance scheme.

The government plans to increase awareness about the programme to enable residents have access to comprehensive healthcare coverage.

The official said the ministry plans to establish kiosks in major markets to drive the process of awareness and enrollment.

She assured residents of efficient service delivery, saying, “we’re improving on our service delivery just as we have monitoring teams that go out to all facilities to ensure quality service delivery”.