Implementation Challenges of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on Access to Healthcare in Federal capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and how it has impacted enrolees’ access to healthcare in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. The objective was to examine how readily accessible the healthcare services provided through the NHIS are to employees in FCT, Abuja, Nigeria. The study was guided by the theory of access as postulated by Penchansky and Thomas in 1981. A survey design was adopted, while data were collected and discussed in a mixed manner. This was the use of a questionnaire to obtain quantitative data for the purpose of testing the study hypothesis and addressing the research objective. The purposeful sampling technique was adopted in this research, and a sample of 401 was used in the study while 12 qualitative interviews were conducted. Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection, while Z-statistics was used to test the hypothesis. The result from the qualitative analysis indicated that the healthcare services provided through NHIS are accessible to the enrollees. These were expressed using the themes of availability, approachability, and appropriateness. A flip side of the accessibility of healthcare by the employees shows through the qualitative analysis two themes: service depth and distance. This means that the available health care services are only on the surface, as human resources and facilities are in short supply; hence, there is a serious need for improvement of access to healthcare in FCT.