A physician, Dr Tunji Akintade, has advocated the use of “sin taxes” for health insurance financing to attain the desired Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria.
Akintade, a former Chairman, Association of Nigeria Private Medical Practitioners, made the call in an interview on Wednesday in Lagos.
Wikipedia defines “sin tax” as a tax levied on products or activities that are considered harmful or undesirable.
“These taxes are typically implemented to discourage consumption of the taxed products or to raise revenue for the government,” he said.
Some of the harmful products include sweetened sugar beverages, alcohol, tobacco, and gambling, among others.
According to Akintade, increasing taxes on health-damaging products reduces their consumption, which lowers long-term morbidity and mortality from a wide range of non-communicable diseases.
ALSO READ: Rheumatologist advocates improved healthcare for lupus patients
“The impact of sugar-sweetened beverages, alcohol, tobacco, vaping and gambling is being felt by the health sector as diseases such as diabetes, cancer, kidney diseases and mental disorders, are on the increase.
“Vaping and gambling have been on the rise, especially among youths with its attendant effect on their physical and mental health.
“Obesity is also increasing leading to diabetes cases.
“Government needs to introduce or increase taxes on the cause of these diseases to save citizen’s health.
“Revenues from these should be directed to strengthen healthcare financing and health insurance, especially for the vulnerable citizens,” he said.
Akintade noted that Nigeria’s inability to achieve UHC was impeded by its reliance on premiums to drive health insurance financing, noting that premiums in a challenged economy would not achieve much.
He said: “Out-of-pocket spending which constitutes 70 to 80 percent of spending for health services was no longer sustainable as it inflicts undue financial pressure on citizens.
“No country in the world has achieved UHC using premium, it’s done using taxes.
ALSO READ: FG unveils nutrition guidelines for women, girls
“This is a major reason we’ve not been able to achieve the UHC that we’ve been clamouring for.
“Ghana is around 35 to 40 percent, Norway is around 80 to 90 percent, while in Nigeria, we are below 10 percent,” he said.
Akintade appealed to the three tiers of government to widen the nation’s tax net to capture more businesses, especially those in the informal sector.
According to him, doing this will ensure a robust and effective tax system and health insurance that saves lives and reduces morbidity.
Akintade lauded the Federal Government for the establishment of a Vulnerable Group Fund to ensure health insurance coverage for 83 million poor Nigerians who could not afford to pay premiums.
He noted that such initiatives through the National Health Insurance Authority should be enhanced to impact more citizens.
NAN
