The Senate Committee on Health of the 9th Assembly engaged the public on the National Health Insurance Commission Bill in a public hearing on the 17th of February, 2020. Following this activity, the dRPC PAS initiated a follow up meeting with the Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Distinguished Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe to grant audience to the delegates from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) having concluded their Senior Executive Course (SEC) 41 on Finding solutions to funding Universal Healthcare Coverage for Nigerians. In December 2019, the NIPSS SEC 41 parlayed with Mr President and his cabinet, sharing findings and proposed action plans for health financing for Nigeria. This public hearing for the repeal of the National Health Insurance Commission Bill made sharing the recommendations of the NIPSS SEC 41 imperative.
The Director General, NIPSS Prof Habu Galadima was on hand with his delegates and the leadership of the dRPC PAS to intimate the Distinguished Senator on the recommendations for the NHIC Bill, highlighting through reflections the processes for the attainment of the findings from the SEC 41 report. The Distinguished Senator applauded the National Institute for the report presentation and the recommendations distilled in a policy brief on health financing focusing on the NHIS. He acknowledged that the National Health Insurance had coverage deficiencies but noted that they were willing to learn from comparative experiences. Adding that the NIPSS resource will provide some technical guidance to the final formation process.
The Distinguished Senator committed to sharing the findings of the report to his technical working group on the NHIC Bill also requesting for support to pool information for the law and technical support to synthesize data for evidence based decision. NIPSS and the dRPC PAS is poised to provide technical support to the Technical Working Group of the Senate Committee on Health to bring this Bill to fruition.
Already, dRPC is working with the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS to promote the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, BHCPF through the publication of a quarterly UHC Bulletin. The bulletin will encapsulate all national efforts aiming to ensure Universal Health Coverage. Series of meetings with the management of the NHIS took place to design and establish an editorial board as well as come up with a strategy to publish the distribution of the BHCPF as a way of promoting transparency and accountability in the system. dRPC is also working with the NHIS to come up with a scorecard on the BHCPF at the national level.
