Tuesday 15 December 2015

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. 

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Thanks for the awareness. Together we can make our world a better place.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I do hope to make a difference

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent article! We are linking too this particularly great post onn our site. Keep up the great writing.
    Preventive Health Checkup

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey! thanks for share it with us, It is very important for me
    Please click here . www.myhealthtips24.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's a simple but effective way of making people aware where to go or not go if you need health care. Home Healthcare Shop

    ReplyDelete
  6. As a consequence, they are aware of where the job opportunities are present, what is the nature of these jobs, what kind of healthcare organizations are currently recruiting and what are the realistic salary and benefits that are being provided by employers.
    Smart Medigap Plans

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am really impressed after reading this blog post. I would like to thank you for sharing this amazing post with us and i will share it too. Visit us http://bit.ly/2Y9j7Od Express Clinics is India’s fastest growing “Multispeciality Clinic & Diagnostic Chain” having 24 clinics operational across Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Navi Mumbai and Pune along with centralized Lab in each location.
    In addition, we also have a network of 3200 affiliate Diagnostic Clinics as our Network Partners, providing coverage in 500+ cities on a pan India basis. An ISO 9001:2015 Certified Enterprise with an NABL Accredited Lab*, Express Clinics currently serves 700+ corporate clients across various industries like Manufacturing, IT & ITES, Hospitality, Pharmaceutical, Banking and Insurance to name a few and has served over 10 Lakhs + retail customers since its inception in March 2011.

    ReplyDelete