Lagos unveils new health insurance packages - The Punch

Published 21 February 2022

The Lagos State Health Management Agency has unveiled new and expanded benefit packages for the state’s health insurance scheme, Ilera Eko.

The new benefit packages, according to a statement on Sunday were reviewed based on the findings of the actuarial study conducted with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Strategic Purchasing for Family Planning, Maternal, New-Born and Child Health Project.

The statement read, “The SP4FP/MNCH Project implementation is led by Health Systems Consult Limited and has been providing technical assistance to the Lagos State Health Facility Monitoring Agency and Accreditation Agency and the State Ministry of Health since 2019. Through the project, HSCL provided technical assistance for the actuarial study and analysis of packages.

“The actuarial study though funded by a family planning project, took an integrated MNCH approach and also included the implication of including additional HIV/AIDS, TB, some additional secondary services, as well as cancer care, on cost of care and eventual premium to be paid by enrollees.

“The findings showed that integrating the full complement of family planning and some HIV and TB services into the base benefit package didn’t change the premium, because the number of enrollees that will be receiving these services and cost of the services are small relative to the entire pool of insured people and given the risk-sharing across all enrollees.

“As a result, LASHMA expanded its base package to integrate additional FP, HIV and TB services at the same premium of per enrollee per year. With this new package, all enrollees who desire FP services will be able to receive it without paying at the health facility, irrespective of facility ownership.”