Esther Oluku
Technology firm and pioneer for integrated health insurance system in Nigeria, Medismarts, is set to roll out a diaspora premium payment portal as part of its vision to expand healthcare access across Nigeria’s over 180,000,000 uninsured population.
According to Medismarts’ Chief Executive Officer, Obinna Osuji, the portal is designed to ease the burden of out-of-pocket payment for medicals and restore the dignity of patients who, when caught in health challenges, resort to public spaces and social media for help.
He said that patients in Nigeria, like in other climes, deserve the decency of walking into a health facility and getting the care they need without having to go soliciting for funds from the public arguing that healthcare access is a basic human need.
“When push comes to shove, most people cannot pay out-of-pocket for healthcare. Imagine if someone needed surgery, we see it all the time. People come out and they are soliciting for funds, posting on social media, WhatsApp groups, in the hope of raising money to save this person.
“When I see those things, it’s so painful to me. It is dehumanising. People should be able to walk into a hospital with their health insurance being able to cover a significant portion of the bill and give people back their dignity and decency,” he said
According to him, the portal, which will go live next month, will bridge the funding gap by linking Nigerians and their relatives in diaspora with Medismarts’ platform which allows them to buy insurance packages for their loved ones who reside in Nigeria.
He noted that this product aligns with the firm’s long term goal of integrating health insurance subscription into payment platforms, a solution which he believes, will democratise access to healthcare especially for people in underserved communities.
“It should be possible to purchase health insurance the same way we moved from people who go to ATMs to where we are now where people can simply walk down the road and see like three or four POS operators where they can process their transactions.
“It is something that we aspire to where we are plugged into the systems that people use on a day-to-day basis so that health insurance becomes a commodity that is easily acquired,” he said.
