Cancer, Advanced Heart Disease: NHIS To Establish National Catastrophic Fund

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The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is to establish a National Catastrophic Fund to specifically address terminal ailments such as cancer, advanced heart disease, among others.

The Executive Secretary of the scheme, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, made the disclosure at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday.

He said that the current contributions to the health insurance pool was insufficient to cater for some packages and programmes of the scheme.

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He emphasised that if NHIS had enough funds, it would cover the treatment and management of cancer and other terminal diseases fully.

“But we will not leave our people to be afflicted. We are creating another initiative – the Catastrophic Fund, within the NHIS.

“Some international agencies have indicated willingness toward that and other partners like the World Bank trying to ensure that we establish the fund.

“So, when we have the contributions, we can move from limited coverage to advanced coverage, depending on how much is contributed into the fund.”

Sambo also said that the scheme was planning to invest its residual fund, saying: “if we are allowed to invest our money by the office of the accountant general, we will be able to get more funds.

“We cannot say that we have enough funds when we cannot cover cancer; it doesn’t add up.

“That is the basic philosophy behind the NHIS system,” the executive secretary said.