NHIS: Health insurance still elusive for many Nigerians

Friday, December 22, 2017

Emergency
An employee of a construction company in Lagos, Mrs. Yetunde Igbayiloye, had her first delivery through an insurance cover obtained under the National Health Insurance Scheme provided by her employer.
 
The pleasant experience of using the cover gave her the confidence to try the scheme for her next delivery; so she and her husband never bordered to set money aside for any unexpected emergency.
 
“My first delivery was very smooth and for three months, my baby and I were taken care of by the hospital for free until I was able to arrange a separate insurance cover for my baby,” she said.
 
Unfortunately, her experience of using the plan for her second delivery dealt her a big blow and this crumbled the confidence she had in the scheme.
 
This time, she had a set of triplets delivered prematurely and needed to be incubated. After the fifth day of her delivery, the hospital told her that her HMO could no longer bear the expenses of the babies but were ready to continue to take care of the mother.
 
For this reason, she was ordered to move the triplets out of the hospital, but she could stay back for free medication.
 
She said, “Where is that done? How could they ask me to stay back in the hospital and tell me to take my babies elsewhere? My husband was not prepared for this because it was not as if we set aside money for this kind of emergency.
 
“I had thought that they would take care of my babies like they did when I had my first delivery, but maybe they rejected my babies because they were three and needed to be incubated.”
 
 
Her family had to transfer her and the babies to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, and sourced for funds to continue with the medical care of mother and babies.
 
Read more at http://punchng.com/nhis-health-insurance-still-elusive-for-many-nigerians/