HMOs: Affordable Healthcare Solutions

We at the Informed Mum need to contribute our bit to the World Health Organization’s “Every woman, every child” program whose ultimate ambition is to end preventable deaths among all women, children and adolescents (and in fact everyone).  Many people among us have little or no access to essential, good-quality health services.  Hardly does a day go by in Nigeria without one hearing of someone dying, mostly of preventable and/or treatable causes. Most of the deaths have their causes rooted in poverty and/or a fear of hospital bills, so we tend to take the cheap way out. We patronize quacks, or these over-the-counter drug vendors one finds in almost all nooks and crannies of our society. Their drugs and treatment are cheap as far as money is concerned. One most times ends up buying fake or sub-standard drugs which hardly ever takes care of the issue (reminds one of the phrase “....high cost of cheap stuff......”). Those vendors just ‘mix’ drugs and give one depending on the symptoms one described. It is often shocking to find out they also sell some prescription drugs. It gets scarier by the day.

Things are hard, the economy seems to be getting harder by the day but we have to survive while we hope things get better. We can get our health insured, We can register with any HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) of our choice that would manage our healthcare. This assures to a very large extent we do not fall very sick as people with health insurance tend to get to the hospital once they notice even the slightest ill-health symptom. Many of us used to believe one needs to work with a corporate organization or the government to be able to access a HMO’s services.  These HMOs have  health packages for individuals as well as for families. There packages cover different ranges of health-care services. You simply choose the HMO of your choice; choose the package you can afford and the hospital convenient for you among those they work with. Some have packages as low as twelve thousand Naira and very flexible payment plans.

There are huge benefits in signing up for a health insurance plan. They offer cost-effective medical care, You do not have to pay out-of-pocket for your healthcare anymore except for some companies that have a co-payment plan,  You can get to the hospital and access quality care even when your pockets are empty. They also have ways of handling emergencies; when you cannot access your registered hospital. Just enroll yourself and/or your family and you are good to go. We took the liberty to attach the link to NCRIB (The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers)-approved HMOs
here. Simply view or download the pdf, contact any HMO of your choice and inquire about their packages and partner hospitals, settle with one and voila, your health is insured for one year or thereabout.

A health maintenance plan will make a very good  gift for a loved one, especially those who can hardly afford it. We need to join hands and work towards better health for all of us. We need to stop preventable deaths. We need to contribute to supporting people to reach their full potential. We need to reduce the ridiculous mortality rates in our nation. We need to contribute our quota to improving the social determinants of health of everyone around us. We all need to work towards universal health coverage for all Nigerians.