By editor - 32 mins ago
The recent national roll out of the Basic Healthcare Provisions Fund in Osogbo by the federal government has now brought to reality the long awaited implementation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature health programme, ‘Huwe’. Martins Ifijeh reports
Just over a year ago, precisely April 12, 2018 during the second Healthcare Policy Dialogue, the federal government launched the logo and beneficiary identification card for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in Abuja which signalled the beginning of a brand new programme for the Nigerian healthcare sector.
Barely 34 days after, the National Assembly took a step further and earmarked N55.17 billion in the national budget as the one per cent consolidated revenue fund for the funding of BHCPF.
That was the first time since the passage of the National Health Act in 2014, that the federal government has earmarked funds for the BHCPF.
But between that earmarking of the fund and now, the world, including development partners, healthcare stakeholders, the World Health Organisation, and most importantly Nigerians had their fingers crossed, to see if government would toe the same path of unfulfilled promises it was known for in the past.
To them, the scenario that plays out in the couple of months after all the aforementioned processes will determine whether or not the Nigerian government was serious about implementing the programme or not.
But the federal government didn’t go the way the average Nigerian or international watchers would think it to go. Last Friday it defied the odds to start the national roll out of the funds beginning with Osun State.
What BHCPF Means to Nigerians
The BHCPF is an additional fund outside the healthcare allocation in the national annual budget to address basic healthcare needs of Nigerians. In the 2018 budget, it was put at N57.17 billion for primary healthcare strengthening and service delivery, which mobilises additional resources from the government of Nigeria and development partners to improve the delivery of essential basic health services to Nigerians.
According to the Special Technical Adviser to the Minister of Health, Dr. Oyebanji Filani, the BHCPF will pay for a modest benefit package of health services which currently comprises prenatal, delivery, and post-natal care, as well as family planning services for all mothers in rural areas of Nigeria and also cover the cost of high- impact child health interventions.
He said it will also allow such services to be delivered by accredited private and public facilities that will be reimbursed for services delivered.
“In recognition that Primary Health Centres (PHCs) hardly ever receive any operational costs to cover their expenses, publicly owned PHCs will be provided with operating budgets,” he said.
According to the mandate in the National Health Act, 50 per cent of the BHCPF is allocated to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) “gateway”, 45 per cent through the NPHCDA “gateway”, and five per cent is set aside to deal with emergencies under the Emergency Medical Treatment (EMT) “gateway”.
Under the NPHCDA gateway, direct cash transfers are provided to public primary health facilities, while under the NHIS gateway accredited public and private facilities are paid for delivering Basic Minimum Package of Heath Services (BMPHS).
Filani said the design of the BHCPF provides an opportunity for channeling resources directly to public PHCs in the NPHCDA gateway, whilst the NHIS gateway provides an opportunity to incorporate the private sector through the accreditation of private providers in the NHIS gateway.
Report By: Chidimma Ihenacho
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