The Senate has amended the National Health Insurance Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) bill, 2021, passed by the National Assembly in April last year.
The amendment of the law followed the consideration of a motion for re-committal of some clauses by the Committee of the Whole.
The Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North), sponsored the motion for re-committal.
The Deputy Leader, Ajayi Boroffice, in his presentation on behalf of the Senate Leader, recalled that the National Assembly transmitted the bill after its passage to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent on April 23, 2020.
He observed that the President, after critical examination of the bill, raised some fundamental issues which, according to him, required fresh legislative action to clauses 20, 24(2), and 25(2)(c).
Senator Boroffice explained that the decision by the National Assembly to amend the bill was in line with the need to address all observations raised by the President.
Accordingly, the upper chamber deleted clause 20 of the bill which provides for Third Party Administrator.
It also amended the provisions of clause 24(2) on the implementation of the Basic Health Care Fund.
The amended clause reads, “for the purpose of subsection (1), the Authority shall implement the Basic Health Care Provision Fund as set out in the National Health amended the provisions of clause 25 by deleting clause 25(c) on the Establishment and Sources of Vulnerable Group Fund.
The upper chamber introduced a new clause to replace the deleted one.
The new clause provides for “Special Intervention Funds allocated by Government and appropriated by the National Assembly” as a source for the Vulnerable Group Fund
The amendment was proposed by Chairman of the Health Committee (Secondary and Tertiary), Yahaya Oloriegbe (Kwara Central), and seconded by Sadiq Umar Suleiman (Kwara North
