Ayoola Babalola
Nigeria’s health insurance system should be used not only to pay medical bills when people fall ill but to change the country’s tendency to seek care only after health problems have become serious, the Managing Director of Ultimate Health Management Services, Lekan Ewenla, has said.
Ewenla linked the preventive side of health insurance to the need to reduce sudden deaths, arguing that regular access to healthcare and greater awareness of personal health status could help Nigerians identify and manage illnesses before they become emergencies.
He made the argument in an interview with journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, while urging Nigerians to move away from the widespread reliance on out-of-pocket healthcare payments.
“As a matter of fact, the concept of health insurance was, first of all, to change the health-seeking behaviour of Nigerians,” Ewenla said.
His position places the debate over health insurance beyond the question of who pays hospital
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