Cushioning The Effect Of The Hospital Bills

How much do you spend on hospital bills annually? Do you go bankrupt after a hospital admission? Do you spend more money on drugs than you do on food? The financial burden on healthcare can be reduced significantly with health insurance.

Having health insurance has many benefits. It protects you and your family from financial losses in the same way that home or car insurance does. No one plans to get sick or hurt, but most people need medical care at some point.

Health insurance covers these costs and offers many other important benefits like routine medical checkup and preventive care. Remember the old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?” Preventive services such as routine physical examinations, immunizations and screenings are also included in health insurance.

 Nigeria runs a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) where a civil servant contributes 5% of their basic salary and the government pays the remaining 10%, making 15% as the total contribution made to the National Health Insurance Scheme per employee. With this the employee has access to healthcare. The employee may pay a 10% token at the point of service depending on the particular package he is running.

There are different packages of the NHIS: The Formal, Informal and Vulnerable group packages which includes pregnant women, children and prison inmates. The recipient is required to be registered with a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) accredited by the NHIS.

 Health insurance renders great help in unforeseen circumstances like accidents or in persons suffering from chronic diseases thereby cushioning the effect of their hospital bills.