The Managing Director of Ultimate Health Management Services, a Health Management Organization, Otunba Lekan Ewenla, has explained that preventive health care is a major component of health insurance in Nigeria, saying enrolment in the program will help eliminate or curb sudden deaths in the country.
Ewenla, in an interview with journalists in Lagos on Tuesday, said Nigerians should not wait until they are ill to access health care or know their health status as health insurance is mainly designed to address both preventive and curative healthcare services.
”As a matter of fact, the concept of health insurance was, first of all, to change the health seeking behavior of Nigerians,” he said.
The HMO MD, who lamented cases of sudden deaths in the country, noted that the National Health Insurance Authority, the regulatory agency for health insurance in Nigeria should embark on strategic media or publicity campaign to create top-of-mind-awareness to highlight the enormous benefits inherent in the health insurance program to Nigerians.
Ewenla, went further to mention the high point of the circular issued by the Secretary to the Federal Government of the Federation on 4th September, 2025 focusing on the introduction of sanctions for non-compliance with the mandatory enrolment on the program by all Nigerians.
He stated, ” It is important that to educate the populace about the inherent benefits and the implications of non-compliance with the law.”
He said “Health insurance is designed to change the narration of our poor health indices through regular interactive session and sensitization of the enrollees by the health maintenance organizations that are statutorily saddled with the responsibility of driving enrolment and managing their access to quality health care services. Health insurance is designed to let our people appreciate the importance of paying premium attention to their wellbeing.”
According to him, “it is the commitment to change the narration of our poor health indices that made Ultimate Health HMO to recently adopt the benefit package of the public sector social health insurance program for introduction to the operators in the informal sector including the small and medium business owners across the country.
”It is important to mention that the benefit package is robust, well understood by the NHIA accredited network of Health Care Facilities -HCFs across the country and above all, the premium is very affordable.”
He explained that with the National Health Insurance Authority NHIA Act of 2022 and the Federal Government circular of September 2025, Nigerians should begin to embrace the health insurance program and reach out to Ultimate Health HMO for their enrolment.
“We need to migrate completely from paying out of pocket for medical services. It is no longer in vogue. It is no longer trending. People should enroll in the health insurance program to have unhindered access to qualitative and affordable health care services all year round”. he added.
On his recent trip to the United Kingdom and his meeting with Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ewenla said the company went to the United Kingdom to re-launch and re-introduced the health insurance program to Nigerians living in the United Kingdom in order to encourage them to enroll their dependents, family members and business associates in the program back home most especially with the introduction of sanctions for non-compliance.
He stated, “we have it on good authority that remittances from the Diaspora back home on a monthly basis is presently over $1billon per month and a reasonable fraction of these funds- these informal funds are sent to individuals to access care.”