How cancer, kidney, fertility patients are being priced out of health care

Procuring healthcare services in Nigeria could be quite expensive, and for people with certain conditions such as cancer, kidney and fertility challenges, the burden becomes almost unbearable.

This is more so when payment is done out of pocket and not through any insurance cover such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

This has varying consequence for the patients, their families and even employers as the impact is felt at different levels of relationships. This is expected to worsen this year as hospitals, pressed by rising cost of drugs and other supplies, are increasing the fees charged to patients.

For hospitals, many lose money when patients, after getting treatment, are unable to pay their bills. Nigeria’s minimum wage is N18,000, whereas roughly 95 percent of the citizens have to make out-of-pocket payment to meet their health needs. This leaves just about 5 percent of Nigerians covered by any form of health insurance.

“We have lost so much from our earned income paying for our mother’s medical bills and treatment. To worsen it all is the pressure from the long queue for treatment, and every time there is a sad story of the radiotherapy machine breaking down,” said Ikechi, whose 58-yearold mother has breast cancer.

Ikechi’s mother (name withheld) was diagnosed with breast cancer on her right breast in 2012, and it had to be surgically cut off that same year.

Since the surgery, Ikechi said, the family has been taking her to the clinic for check-ups, spending on drugs and some treatment therapies.

“We believed that the cancer had been cured. However, at a point in 2018, she started developing pains again from the breast to the waist, six years after the surgery was done. We went to another hospital and a Ct-scan was carried out in August. The doctor said the result shows that the cancer has spread all over and it is eating her up,” he said.

“When we took our mother home, after the results confirming that the cancer has spread, it took us two months as a family to discuss how to raise more money to continue her treatment, because we had spent so much in the last few years. Between the months of September till now we have spent not less than 1.5 million naira,” he said.