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NHIS, MTN, others develop mobile health insurance

By on April 30, 2014

The Nigerian National Health Insurance Scheme, MTN Nigeria and Salt & Einstein MTS, a mobile insurance services aggregator, have developed a mobile-based universal health insurance service known as Y’ello Health.

A joint statement by the firm on Monday indicated that the service was aimed at providing affordable health insurance cover on a pre-paid basis.

Through the Y’ello Health, the firms said mobile subscribers would be able to opt into a micro healthcare insurance scheme with Health Management Organisations using their mobile phones for a range of pre-defined medical treatments for which affordable premium could also be remitted through the subscribers’ mobile phone.

The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of NHIS, Dr. Femi Thomas, said, “MTN is a large player in the Nigerian economy, having a good number of registered Nigerians on its database.

“To be able to reach out to Nigerians, we at the NHIS decided to partner with Salt & Einstein MTS and MTN on this new initiative to achieve ‘Universal Health Coverage’ for Nigerians nationwide.”

He added, “The time has come for us to extend health insurance to Nigerians from all walks of life. With Nigeria’s population in mind, the NHIS in partnership with Salt & Einstein MTS and MTN is bent on providing more efficient healthcare service to those who indeed cannot afford good healthcare services. This will help to pull risk and share healthcare costs equitably across the population.”

The Executive Chairman, Salt and Einstein MTS, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, said  the current subscriber base of the network provided adequate grounds for direct health insurance provision to Nigerians.

The Chief Marketing Office, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Larry Annetts, was quoted as saying, “The focus market for the Y’ello Health cover are Nigerians who have no health insurance cover principally because they cannot afford the regular health insurance services in the market.

“These individuals like everyone else, need medical care. However, without access to insurance, they probably would be having occasional challenges paying for medical treatment, because such expenses would usually be without or at short notice. It is to take away this burden of impromptu medical expenses that we are partnering to introduce this product.”

 

 

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One Comment

  1. Ojuor Chinedu

    July 13, 2014 at 10:20 am

    Laudable! The NHIS Program must be encouraged in Nigeria at all levels. It is heart breaking that majority of Nigerians do not know about this and what they stand to benefit from participating. It all boils down to education and more education. More educative health insurance articles at: Health Insurance