Health insurance can curb sudden deaths, says Expert

Health insurance scheme is the potent way to prevent sudden death in the society, the managing director of Ultimate Health Management Services, Otunba Lekan Ewenla, has said.

Ewenla said preventive health care is a major component of health insurance in Nigeria.

He added that enrolment in the programme would help eliminate or curb sudden deaths in the country.
Ewenla, in an interview with journalists in Lagos, yesterday, 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 behaviour of Nigerians,” he said.

The HMO MD, who lamented sudden deaths in the country, asked the National Health Insurance Authority to embark on a strategic media or publicity campaign to create top-of-mind awareness of the enormous benefits inherent in its programme for Nigerians.

Ewenla highlighted the key point of the circular issued by the secretary to the government of the federation on 4th September, 2025, on the introduction of sanctions for non-compliance with the mandatory enrolment in the program by all Nigerians. ‎

‎He stated, “It is important 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 sessions and sensitisation of the enrollees by the health maintenance organisations 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 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 enrollment. ‎

‎“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 enrol 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 are presently over 1bn dollars per month and a reasonable fraction of these funds- these informal funds are sent to individuals to access care.”