The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), has collaborated with NSIA Insurance Limited to promote its international health insurance product, ‘NSIA Health Insurance’, to the Nigerian market.
NSIA Health Insurance is a partnership between leading African insurance companies and one of the largest health insures in the world, to provide a robust health plan for local companies who want to insure their workers with easy access to quality healthcare in Nigeria and beyond likewise multinationals existing in Nigeria who desire to harmonise their health insurance across Africa.
The President of the council, Shola Tinubu, speaking at the June edition of the brokers’ members evening programme in Lagos, which was sponsored by NSIA, urged all members and brokers to embrace the product and see it as an excellent opportunity for brokers to penetrate the health insurance market since there is hardly any health insurance product been sold in the broking market.
“The uniqueness of this product are in two folds. First, in this market no broker is selling health insurance. Most of the health insurance products the market has are with the Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) and brokers are not carried along by HMOs. Due to this, many brokers have been precluded from the intermediary services on the health side. This is because when the HMOs came into operation, they started outside insurance by directly engaging their distribution and clients unlike insurance products which came through intermediary services and distribution channels such as brokers.
“Also, it is a pure insurance product which beats the issue of capitation which is a major problem faced by the health delivery sector in terms of financing. Once one is insured, the insurer takes full responsibility of the health coverage unlike the HMO model which shares risks with the hospitals and when one is facing a financing problem the other is affected.” He noted.
Also speaking, the Managing Director, NSIA Insurance, Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, stressed that NSIA health Insurance which was birthed through NSIA partnership with Cigna Health, a Fortune 500 company from the United States of America, as part of the efforts to deliver an international health insurance services to Nigerians takes into consideration the various health insurance needs of companies and ensures it satisfies such needs of company staff members wherever they are in the world.
While appreciating the continued support of NCRIB to NSIA so far, she noted that, partnering with brokers and having them sell or propose health insurance to clients, will be a magnificent addition to the products they offer them and also help the income that the broking market generates from the sales of insurance product.