Health insurance: World Bank offers N7bn support

14.05.2008

The World Bank has committed six million dollars (about N7 billion) to the Health Insurance Fund (HIF), a private initiative, to support a group of 30,000 people in Lagos State.

The Managing Director of HIF, Mr Chris Vorm, said this on Tuesday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

“The World Bank has agreed to support a group of 30,000 people in Lagos for five years which will start in the second or third quarter of the year,” he said.

Vorm said the fund was a foundation that provided private health insurance to low income groups in sub-Saharan Africa.

The director said the insurance covered quality basic healthcare, which, he noted, included the treatment of HIV and AIDS.

“Through its innovative approach, the fund strives to contribute toward increasing access to quality basic health care.

“This will bring the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reality,” he said, adding that the health sector in Africa faced a number of challenges so the public health sector was unable to meet the countries healthcare needs.

According to him, “even though most of the donor money is channelled through the private sector, healthcare and treatment for HIV and AIDS, malaria as well as tuberculosis remain inaccessible to the vast majority of Africans.

“An innovative health-care model is therefore needed to increase the demand for pre-paid health-care and improve the quality of healthcare delivery.”

He said that the fund’s programme was aimed at organised groups of previously uninsured, low-paid workers such as women associations and farmer organisations.