…Health expenditure must get better-Dr. Oweja
By Hassan Zaggi
The Managing Director, Research for Development (R4D), Cheryl Cashin, has advised the federal government to prioritise Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in budget and budgetary allocations.
She gave the advice during health policy dialogue on Strategic Purchasing Reforms and Primary Health Care (PHC) Financing, in Abuja.
She described health purchasing as the allocation of pooled funds on behalf of the population to the providers of health goods and services.
Strategic purchasing, she further noted, makes deliberate decisions about how to allocate pooled funds—which services, from which providers, and how to pay—based on priorities, objectives, and information.
“For Nigeria to get it right, there should be commitment in the legislation and continue to prioritise UHC in the budget and budgetary allocations and also to look carefully at the PHC level and make sure funds reach the frontline and meet the needs of people who are in need,” she stressed.
She, however, warned that health insurance alone cannot drive UHC, noting that: “Health insurance has to be in alignment with some commitments in the budget on the supply side. All these has to be in harmony and health insurance is a very important part of it, but it cannot stand alone.”
While calling on the federal government to look at the system wholistically with all the leverage available in order to achieve UHC, Cheryl Cashin, said that with the recent passage of the NHIA Act, there seems to be some energy and interest in discussing actions to move forward.
R&D, she vowed, will continue to partner and support Nigeria to attain UHC.
On his part, the Country Director, Result for Development Institute, Nigeria, Dr. Hope Oweja, insisted that Nigeria must work hard to get it right in her efforts towards achieving UHC.
He cautioned that “it is one thing to mobilise resources for health but it is very key that these resources that you have mobilized need to be properly expended for health value so that more Nigerians or the population at risk will be able to access health care.
“So, strategic purchasing help countries to get more health outcomes for the money that has been put forward for health.”
While stressing that Nigeria still needs to mobilise more resources for health, Dr. Oweja said: “Nigeria expenditure for health needs to get better. We need to also work for more health for money. We need to utilize the resources that we succeeded in mobilizing, we need to utilize it in a better way so that we can have great outcome.
“I will surmise it by saying from the Nigerian point of view, we need more resources for health and more health for money.”
Speaking while delivering a goodwill message, the Director General, NHIA, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, applauded the organizes of the dialogue, as, according to him, it offers the platform for the government agencies and partners to discuss how they can work together improve financing and access to healthcare for all Nigerians, especially vulnerable populations.
He, therefore, called for the need for the institutionalization of health sector reforms, coordination of all stakeholder efforts, adequate and sustainable financing, political commitment at all levels of government and strategic harnessing the potentials of the private sector – taking into consideration our local context and peculiarities.
Prof. Sambo revealed that over the last three years, “there have been a lot of reforms within the NHIA which are anchored on the three-point rebranding agenda.
The three point agenda, he explained, include value re-orientation; transparency and accountability; and accelerating the drive towards UHC.
