An assessment of Nigeria's National Health Insurance Scheme Policy and Public Health Financing

Abstract

The commitment of each government to providing its citizens with quality healthcare services is essential to the inevitable development of a strong healthcare system. The existing literature, however, has concentrated on the consequences of financing the health care system without taking into account the importance of its insurance scheme components. Therefore, this study assessed how public health funding affected Nigeria's national health insurance scheme (NHIS) policy. From a population of 113,853 people living in the Ogbomoso North Local Government area, a sample size of 399 people was chosen using a multistage (clustered and incident) sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to gather primary data from a sample of respondents. According to the findings, 42.9% of NHIS patients' bills are not paid on time. Additionally, only 10% of patients visited the majority of NHIS-accredited hospitals (57.1%). Public health financing had an impact on NHIS, according to the analysis (χ2 = 14.000; p = 0.007). Additionally, sociocultural factors like sex, income, and education were found to have a significant impact on the adoption of NHIS (R2 = 0.624, F-ratio = 15.344, p = 0.001). This study found that NHIS was impacted by public health funding and that sociocultural factors influenced NHIS adoption. In order for a greater number of people to benefit from NHIS, this study suggested that the government raise awareness of it. In order to motivate healthcare providers, NHIS should also guarantee that NHIS patients' medical bills are paid on time.