Senator: Why it’s difficult to achieve universal health coverage in Nigeria

Ibrahim Oloriegbe, chairman of the senate committee on health, says universal health coverage (UHC) is difficult to achieve in the country because the state and local governments have abandoned their responsibilities for the federal government.

Speaking at 2023 Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Forum organised by the International Society for Media in Public Health (ISMPH) in Abuja on Thursday, Oloriegbe said the state and local governments are not committing enough resources to healthcare in their jurisdictions.

The chairman said the country needs to rethink the way it funds public health at all levels to ensure that there is UHC for every citizen.

“For us to be able to achieve UHC, we need health insurance. The essence is that everybody that requires health should get it without suffering catastrophe whatever, particularly financial,” he said.

“We need to rethink about public financing, public funding of our healthcare, looking at our physical structure. It is a federation.

“We have federal, state and local governments. If you look at what is happening now, the sub-national levels are not committing as much as necessary to health and the national health act stated the responsibility of each level of government with the federal government having the responsibility for tertiary care.

“About 70 percent of the health budget for the federal government goes to teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centres, but of course, most of that is for salary purposes.”

The legislator said the state and local governments need to do more in ensuring that they adequately finance public health at their levels.

“Instead of them to allocate their own resources, the moment they see resources coming from the NPHCDA, they don’t allocate their own,” Oloriegbe said.

On her part, Moji Makanjuola, chairperson of the forum, said as the 2023 elections draw near, UHC should be a topical issue.

“As the 2023 general elections approach in Nigeria, they also come with abundant opportunities which could be leveraged to engage the political class, acquaint them with gaps and challenges in the health sector, deepen their knowledge about existing policy thrusts and guide them to articulate a context-appropriate course of action that is capable of setting the country on UHC trajectory,” Makanjuola said.

“The UHC 2023 Forum seeks to do different things and do things differently by forming a robust alliance that articulates a clear health policy agenda to be adopted by the political parties.”