Neils Conveys Health Insurance Scheme to TAMPAN &ANTP

Ahead of the eventual roll out of the Nigerian Entertainment Industry Health Insurance Scheme (NEIHIS), a strong delegation of the Nigerian Entertainment Industry Lecture Series (NEILS) met with the National executives of Theatre Arts and Movies Practitioners of Nigeria (TAMPAN) on Wednesday September 17, 2014 in Abeokuta, Ogun State as well as the Association of Nigerian Theatre-Arts Practitioners (ANTP) on Thursday September 18, 2014 in Ibadan, Oyo State respectively. The two prominent associations had their national executive meetings with representatives from across the different states of the federation.

NEILS attended these meetings to further convey and educate the executives and members about the industry’s planned uniform health insurance scheme and also the proposed Nigerian Entertainment Industry Health Trust Fund. The president of TAMPAN, Mr. Yemi Solade who received the NEILS delegation applauded the initiative and urged all Nigerian entertainment industry practitioners to participate actively in the scheme as enrollees. “It’s a welcome development for the entertainment industry and I believe this is a project everybody in the entertainment industry should be part of. I can remember vividly how we lost a very popular Yoruba actor, Alaran because of N15, 000. With this great initiative, our future as entertainers and that of our families are secured”.
Also speaking in Ibadan on Thursday, the President of ANTP, Mr. Jide Ashaolu commended the initiators (NEILS) and pledged that his association will set up a national committee to liaise with the administrators on harnessing benefits of the scheme for its members. “This is a very brilliant initiative that every practitioner should partake in, that is the reason I invited you to brief our national executives officially who will in turn take the information to all the state chapters. I congratulate the Nigerian entertainment industry for this milestone of a secured future”.

NEILS is presently embarking on a nationwide tour to sensitize all entertainment industry practitioners and invariably all Nigerians about the essence of secured future through health insurance. The Nigerian Entertainment Industry Health Insurance Scheme (NEIHIS) is in partnership with National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) whose mandate is to ensure affordable healthcare delivery for all Nigerians. The agency is currently making efforts to ensure that all Nigerians, both poor and rich all have access to health insurance.

The Nigerian Entertainment Industry Health Insurance Scheme is designed as a customized health insurance structure for the practitioners of the entertainment industry. The scheme will ensure timely medical intervention to save the life of any practitioner in the entertainment industry who falls critically ill. In the past, we lost some of our finest entertainers owing to prolonged delay in sourcing adequate funds from members of the public, friends and fans to foot staggering medical bills.

In situations where the health plans subscribed to under the Nigerian Entertainment Industry Health Insurance Scheme (NEIHIS) by some of the enrollees cannot cater to evacuation needs (expensive surgeries abroad), the Nigerian Entertainment Industry Health Trust Fund will be the fall back plan to source all such required funding. This initiative was taken to eradicate the traumatic and very debasing experience some very prominent entertainers and celebrities had to go through “begging” publicly for funds to afford medical treatments abroad under emergency circumstances in time past. The Board of Trustees (BoT) for the health trust fund will consist of credible industry stakeholders across all the sectors of the industry for the sake of transparency and adequate representation.