A leading Nigerian endocrinologist, Professor Olufemi Fasanmade of the University of Lagos, has urged the Federal Government to make health insurance compulsory for all citizens, warning that voluntary schemes have failed to protect households from the soaring cost of care.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Association of Clinical Endocrinologists of Nigeria in Ibadan, Fasanmade linked the country’s rising burden of hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure and other non-communicable diseases to weak health financing and low insurance coverage.
He argued that only a mandatory, tax-backed insurance system can guarantee universal access to essential services, comparing it to the way value added tax is collected and pooled nationally. According to him, healthcare should be treated as a collective responsibility rather than an individual luxury.
Fasanmade described healthcare as an inalienable right that must not depend on income, employment status or place of residence. He condemned situations in which patients die from treatable conditions because they cannot raise relatively small sums for emergency care, calling it a failure of both governance and public participation in health financing.
He noted that fewer than one in ten Nigerians are covered by any form of health insurance, leaving millions exposed to catastrophic out-of-pocket spending. Chronic illnesses, he said, are pushing families into poverty, with kidney failure patients sometimes spending tens of thousands of naira every week on dialysis alone.
Such costs, he stressed, are unsustainable for most workers and underscore why insurance should be seen as a survival mechanism rather than an optional benefit. He also linked poor tax compliance to crumbling public infrastructure, including hospitals, and urged government to widen the tax net and ring-fence more revenue for health.
President of the Association of Clinical Endocrinologists of Nigeria, Professor Williams Balogun, reinforced these concerns, warning that health sector inflation is eroding access to medicines and services. With drug prices and medical equipment largely dependent on imports, he said many patients on lifelong treatment for endocrine and metabolic disorders are being priced out of care.
Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, told participants that Nigeria is in the midst of a silent epidemic of non-communicable diseases. She said state authorities are strengthening primary healthcare, expanding screening and improving drug supply chains, but insisted that sustainable national health insurance remains central to protecting citizens from avoidable illness and financial ruin.
