The Group Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Programme, GIFSHIP, will rapidly expand the scope of healthcare coverage in the Nation’s urgent quest to attain Universal Health Coverage and offers citizens an opportunity to participate and benefit from the health insurance.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire at the formal flag-off of the Group Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Programme on Thursday, November 26th, 2020 in Abuja.
Dr. Ehanire emphasized that the robust ICT infrastructure to be developed and deployed to facilitate enrolee verification, access to care, data collection and management will include analytics, which will feed into a disease map that will be of great benefit in management of public health across the nation.
“This comprehensive ICT profile will be deployed to facilitate the implementation of GIFSHIP, among other activities of NHIS, and give subscribers easier access to service and more value for money that will support their health-seeking endeavours, Dr. Ehanire said.
The Minister used the occasion to invite members of the polity, philanthropists, Nigerians in the diaspora, among others, to take advantage of the fantastic option to provide healthcare coverage for their families, communities, clans and enrol members of their constituencies, loved ones and relations, thereby giving them financial access to comprehensive quality healthcare at the point of need.
“The larger the pool of enrolees, the stronger the Insurance base will be. There is opportunity for affordable individual enrolment, enrolment of a family unit or a group of people. Any of the enrolments can also be sponsored by well-meaning individuals, Trusts, or organizations, he said.
In his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, Prof. Mohammed Sambo said that the Group, Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Programme will enable individuals, families and groups to join the NHIS ecosystem.
He listed some of the appealing features of the programme to include: the inbuilt mechanisms to guard against moral hazard, adverse selection as well as allowing room for organizations, political office holders, donor agencies, multinational corporations, philanthropists and people in Diaspora to contribute their quota towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage.
“The GIFSHIP will leverage on the overarching e-NHIS framework which has been on the drawing board for more than a decade and which was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), he said.
