The Nigeria National health insurance scheme (NHIS) is a program that was designed and managed by the Federal ministry of Health to reduce the catastrophic out -of-pocket expenditure for health care in Nigeria. The NHIS aims to complement government efforts to support inadequate health budget allocation, reduce the burden of the rising costs of health care, as well as improve access to health care. The NHIS scheme was established in 1999 with the eventual operationalization in 2005. The scheme has different programmes. These include the formal economic health sector programme which covers the federal, state and local governments, and the organised private sector; the informal economic sector programme and the exemption group [ , ]. Despite the importance of the scheme to defraying health care costs and target of achieving universal health coverage by 2015, only about 3% of the population is covered by the scheme [ ]. In addition, the formal economic sector scheme accounts for almost all of the total enrolled persons under the scheme [ ].
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