NHIA, Senate push health taxes to fund healthcare, fight diseases

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Senate have called for stronger health tax reforms in Nigeria to improve healthcare financing and curb non-communicable diseases. At a stakeholder workshop in Abuja, NHIA Director-General Dr Kelechi Ohiri emphasized the need for collaboration among various sectors to implement health tax reforms.

He highlighted Nigeria's challenges with infectious diseases, maternal mortality, and the rising burden of non-communicable diseases linked to consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, tobacco, and alcohol. Ohiri stated that health taxes could serve as a strategy to influence consumption patterns and generate domestic resources for healthcare, drawing inspiration from the Philippines' successful use of health taxes to expand health insurance coverage.

The Senate has passed the Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Bill, which awaits approval from the House of Representatives.

Brief written by urgent.news from Punch Nigeria's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.