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With just N35,000 entertainers can stay alive

NEIHIS is a private scheme designed for the entertainment industry and endorsed by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). It’s an initiative of the Nigerian Entertainment Industry Lecture Series (NEILS). 

The initiative was birth out of the need to have a proper health care scheme for entertainers in Nigeria as it is done in other parts of the world, to stop the embarrassing act of soliciting for funds whenever an entertainer is down with an ailment and can’t afford to foot the bills. The scheme has two plans, the standard plan and the ultra plan, the standard plan costs N15,000 for a year while the ultra plan costs N35,000 for a year.

encomium.ng had a chat with the co-ordinator of NEIHIS, Seun Apara and he told us all about why entertainers don’t know about the scheme and how Nomoreloss could have lived if he had subscribed to the scheme.

 

Why do think a lot of entertainers have not keyed into the Nigerian entertainment health insurance scheme (NEIHIS)?

A lot of them are ignorant, because if you are not ignorant about what will benefit you, you would definitely be part of it.

In the case of Nomoreloss, what do you think happened, was he not informed about the scheme?

I won’t say Nomoreloss wasn’t informed about our health insurance scheme, like the doctors will say, God heals they only take care of people. I heard Nomoreloss had typhoid, it is quite unfortunate, even if he had been on the health insurance scheme, and God says it’s his time, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

In the Nigerian entertainment industry, their money isn’t stable, you might be rich today and be broke tomorrow, you might have a lot of shows today and have none in the next six months. My advice is that people should take care of their health, plan for the unforseen and have health insurance.

If you are an entertainer or do anything around the entertainment industry, the Nigerian entertainment health insurance scheme should care for your health, you have nothing to lose. At times when you have malaria and you go to the hospital for checkup, by the time you are leaving your bill is about N20,000 or N25,000. Everything including general check up is covered for the whole year on the NEHIS.

We are trying to encourage health insurance that is why everything in our plan can’t be seen in any other HMO plan for the price we are offering. People should take care of their health, they should subscribe to health insurance and not wait till when sickness comes before they go to the hospital, because some things happens to some people in our industry that if they had gone or go to the hospital regularly for medical checkup, doctors can detect ahead and tell them what to do.

People in our industry don’t go for check up till they are down, when you have health insurance you can always go to the hospital for check up. Nomoreloss was a very talented artiste and everyone is mourning his loss.

 

@Tinuola Joseph for encomium.ng

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A media, tech and events company.

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