We ‘ll ensure quality health care service
—NHIS Coordinator

Alhaji Isa Ismaila Kaita is the Coordinator, North-West Zone of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). In this interview with our correspondent, John Ewaoche Gabriel, he speaks of the important role of NHIS, and explains that those who registered will live a healthy life because there will be a greater improvement in their health through quality service delivery.

How do you distinguish between Social Health Insurance and National Health Insurance?
Social Health Insurance is a kind of arrangement where people come together to contribute certain amount of money in order to assist themselves through health care delivery system. In this case, the amount contributed will assist them to have access to health care any time they felt sick. Therefore, it is a social activity that takes care of health need when the situation arises. It is borne out of the regular contributions by enrollees. It is usually deducted monthly, yearly, depending on the arrangement. On the other hand, National Health Insurance Scheme is a body or government agency set up to provide Social Health Insurance to the people of Nigeria. Social Health Insurance is a product while the National Health Insurance Scheme is the agency that provides the service to the people of this country.
National Health Insurance Scheme has various programmes and covers different segments of Nigerian society. We have the formal and informal sector, rural community, tertiary institutions, retirees, prison, immigration etc; all these are programmes of National Health Insurance Scheme. So, formal sector is just one of the populations of Nigeria sector that National Health Insurance Scheme covers. So, the formal social insurance is the insurance covered by the members of that formal sector like government employees including parastatals and organized private sector.
For instance, contributions to the National Insurance Scheme if you are talking of the formal sector which we operate now are on “earning base”. This means a fixed percentage is calculated and deducted from the employees’ earning on monthly basis. Presently, the total amount is 15 percent of basic salary. The employer pays 10 percent while the employee pays 5 percent.

What will happen to employee’s medical allowance after joining National Health Insurance Scheme programme (NHIS)?
Employees who have been on the scheme need no other medical allowance because such employees are adequately catered for in terms of medical care. The purpose of medical allowance is for the employee to pay for his medical bill. It will be a duplication of payment if medical allowance is being paid at the same time, the employee gets cover from the NHIS. However, it all depends on the employers. Some employers don’t have this scheme while others do not have medical allowance for her employees. Normally, it is those who were provided medical allowances that often talk of medical allowance. In some government agencies, there are medical allowances while in some state government agencies, they don’t have medical allowance. In some places where there are provisions for medical allowances if the employer chooses, they can cancel the medical allowance and introduce NHIS instead to cover the medical allowance which has been paid. It is a duplication of allowances to have social insurance in place and at the same times, the employer pays medical allowances. Medical allowance is for you to take care of yourself by paying your hospital bills when you are sick, buy drugs etc and when social insurance is in place, there is no need for other to exist. In reality, those who have the medial allowance are those who do not have medical cover. So, if you have medical cover, you don’t have medical allowance.

How many members of a family are covered by employee’s contribution?
Under the National Insurance Scheme which include formal sector, the contributions covers the principal (that is, the person contributing), his spouse, followed by his four biological children. So, the contribution covers six people. Considering the peculiarities of our Niger