ADVOCACY MEMO ON THE SOKOTO STATE HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME

This Policy Brief engaged the Sokoto State Health Insurance Scheme with the objective of providing policy recommendations to increase health insurance care coverage in the State. The first section discussed the concept of health insurance and its various forms while the second section discussed Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and its components. In the third section, the study established a link between health insurance coverage and UHC as the former is a tool for attaining the latter. Section four discussed the arguments for compulsory health insurance to include achieving UHC, financial risk protection, equity in health care financing, realization of the minim core obligation on the right to health, etc. In section 5, the study reviewed the key provisions in the law setting up SOCHEMA and section 6 analyzed the linkage between the new National Health Insurance Authority Act (NHIA) and the law setting up SOCHEMA. Section 7 reviewed the performance of the State in accessing the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) while section 8 reviewed the funding of SOCHEMA. In the penultimate section, it draws conclusions from the earlier sections. The tenth section is the strategies and recommendations for improving health insurance coverage in Sokoto which are summarized as follows.
▪ Effective Implementation of Compulsory Health Insurance Coverage
(a) The political leadership should activate the Scheme by commencing the remittance of 10 percent of their monthly basic salary as required by Law;
(b) Negotiate with Organized Labor and commence the remittance of the 15 percent of worker’s basic salaries (10 percent by Employer and 5 percent by Employee) as required by Law;
(c) Start budgeting and fully releasing to SOCHEMA the one percent of Consolidated Revenue Fund of the State and Local Governments as required by Law and;
(d) The Scheme should set realistic and realizable targets and timelines for its full implementation.
▪ Take steps to Implement the Recommendations to Sokoto State in the Assessment Report on “State of Primary Health Care Service Delivery in Nigeria 2019-2021”: Following its findings, recommendations to improve the implementation of BHCPF in the States of the Federations were categorized into “Quick Wins” and “Other key Recommendations”. For Sokoto State (see page 159 of the report), they include (but not limited to):
(a) Completing all required trainings, establishing the health facility management committees, and regularizing the primary health facility bank accounts in all wards so that facilities can commence accessing BHCPF;
(b) Provision of equity funds for the NHIS gateway of the BHCPF; conduct the quarterly gateway forum meetings of the SPHCDA and the SOCHEMA to strengthen the BHCPF implementation.
▪ Start and deepen Sensitization on the Benefits of Health Coverage.
▪ Simplify the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Health Insurance Plans.
▪ Reduce the Bottlenecks of Registering and enrolling under the Scheme.
▪ Improve and Optimize the Expected Benefits of Health Insurance Coverage to
retain enrollees.
▪ Ensure Transparency and Accountability in the Scheme.
▪ Deploy the Best Human Resources in the Management of SOCHEMA.
▪ Provide Incentives for Compliance by Enrollees and other Stakeholders.
▪ Reduce Extreme Poverty and Restructure the Economy for Productivity and
Value Addition.

Download below