Investigating the Effectiveness of the Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme on the Health Care Delivery System

Abstract

The effect of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on quality of health care delivered to Nigerians remained largely untested till date especially in the area of level of awareness of health takers of the scheme, quality of health care delivered, cost implication, benefits and effectiveness of the entire scheme. This has necessitated this study to find out the effect of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on health care delivery in Nigeria using a Teaching Hospital in Lagos as a case study. A survey research was carried out involving 200 questionnaires, randomly distributed equally between the healthcare-givers and the patients - (100 each for both population of interest). Data obtained were subjected to correlational and regression analyses. The results indicated that there is significant relationship between National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the quality of health care delivered to the Nigerian citizenry. Furthermore, benefit derived and programme effectiveness had negative correlation on health care delivery of both patients and health givers. Meanwhile, the quality of health care delivered and cost implication of receiving treatment had a positive correlation with health care delivery. It was recommended that there is a need to create more awareness and education on the total package of the scheme.In addition, managers should improve the effectiveness of the programme through increase coverage of those hitherto-excluded in the scheme as quickly as possible.