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ILO's Social Protection Floor (SPF), the Employee’s Compensation Act (ECA) and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Act : A Comparative Analysis


By

Femi Aborisade


 

Introduction

This paper is a doctrinal and comparative paper in the sense that it sets out the basic provisions of the ILO Social Protection Floor and attempts a comparison with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Act and the Employee’s Compensation Act (ECA).

The paper is thus structured as follows:


  1. Analysis of key provisions of the ILO Social Protection Floor (SPF).
  2. Analysis of key provisions of the NHIS Act
  3. General Comparison of SPF with NHIS Act
  4. Relationship between ECA and ILO’s SPF
  5. The Role of Trade Unions
  6. Conclusion

 

ANALYSIS OF ILO’s SPF

Background to SPF

The Social Protection Floor (SPF) was initiated by the International Labour Office and the World Health Organization, involving 17 collaborating agencies, including the United Nations (UN), NGOs and international financial institutions. The United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (UNCEB) adopted the Social Protection Floor Initiative in April 2009. In 2011, the International Labour Organiation at its 100th Session adopted [certain] ‘Resolution and Conclusions concerning the recurrent discussion on social protection’. The Conference, among other conclusions, acknowledged the ‘need for a Recommendation complementing the existing standards that would provide flexible but meaningful guidance to member States in building Social Protection Floors within comprehensive social security systems tailored to national circumstances and levels of development’. Consequently, on 30 May 2012, the General Conference of the International Labour Organization, at its 101st Session, adopted Recommendation 202 concerning National Floors of Social Protection. This paper is based on the articulation of SPF as contained in the ILO Recommendation 202.

 

The Goal of SPF

The International Labour Conference at its 100th Session noted that the SPF is not just a human right but that closing coverage gaps in social security coverage is of highest priority for equitable economic growth, social cohesion and Decent Work for all women and men  Thus, the ILO Recommendation 202, in its Preamble, declares social security a right. The key goal of the SPF is to ‘prevent and reduce poverty, inequality, social exclusion and social insecurity…’ Paragraph 2 of the Recommendation goes further to define SPF as ‘nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees which secure protection aimed at preventing or alleviating poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion

 

The United Nations Chief Executives Board (CEB) has also defined social protection floor as an integrated set of social policies designed to guarantee income security and access to social services for all, paying particular attention to vulnerable groups, and protecting and empowering people across the life cycle.

 

The central target of SPF therefore is ‘support for disadvantaged groups and people with special needs’ (Paragraph 16, ILO Recommendation on SPF) through comprehensive national social security systems.

 

The Preamble also makes it clear that the Social Protection Floor is based on the rights contained in earlier international instruments, particularly:

  • the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (in particular, Articles 22 and 25),
  • the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)  (in particular, Articles 9, 11 and 12),
  • ILO social security standards, in particular the:
      • Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102),
      • the Income Security Recommendation, 1944 (No. 67), and
      • the Medical Care Recommendation, 1944 (No. 69).

 

Who has primary responsibility for SPF?

Paragraph 3 of the ILO Recommendation provides an answer to this question: it states that the State has primary responsibility, as follows:

 

‘3. Recognizing the overall and primary responsibility of the State in giving effect to this Recommendation.’

 

Minimum scope of SPF

Paragraph 5 (a) to (d) of the ILO Recommendation on SPFs requires member countries to set a Social Protection Floor that provides four (4) categories of minimum social security guarantees:

  •  
  • Provision of Health care (on a universal basis), which includes maternity care, that meets the criteria of availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality;
  •  
  • Income security for children, which guarantees access to nutrition, education, care and any other necessary goods and services;
  •  
  • National Minimum income security for persons in active age who are unable to earn sufficient income in cases of:
    •  
    • sickness (sick benefits);
    •  
    • Unemployment (unemployment benefits)
    •  
    • Maternity (maternity benefits)
    •  
    • Disability (Disability benefits), and

  •  
  • National Minimum income security for older persons (old age pensions, regardless of prior employment status or sector of employment, if previously employed)

 

Paragraph 9(2) complements paragraph 5 by providing that:

 

‘(2) Benefits may include child and family benefits, sickness and health-care benefits, maternity benefits, disability benefits, old-age benefits, survivors’ benefits, unemployment benefits and employment guarantees, and employment injury benefits as well as any other social benefits in cash or in kind.

 

 

Schemes

 

Paragraph 9(3) identifies the Schemes that may be established to provide the benefits. They include:

 

  • universal benefit schemes,
  •  
  • social insurance schemes,
  •  
  • social assistance schemes,
  •  
  • negative income tax schemes,
  •  
  • public employment schemes, and
  •  
  • employment support schemes’

 

 

Minimum Coverage of SPF

 

Paragraph 6 of the Recommendation provides for universal coverage, stating that ‘Members should provide the basic social security guarantees referred to in this Recommendation to at least all residents and children

 

 

Sources of funding benefits

 

In line with Paragraph 3, which places primary responsibility on the State to implement the SPF, paragraph 12 also provides that national social protection floors should be financed by:

  •  
  • national resources, and
  •  
  • International support, where national capacity is inadequate

 

Paragraphs 10 and 11 identify ways to facilitate mobilization of resources for SPF nationally:

  •  
  • Contributory schemes, individually or collectively, taking into account the contributory capacities of different population groups. (Paragraph 11)
  •  
  • enforcement of tax obligations (Paragraph 11)
  •  
  • reprioritizing expenditure (Paragraph 11)
  •  
  • broadening national revenue base (Paragraph 11)
  •  
  • Implementing measures to prevent fraud, tax evasion and non-payment of contributions.
  •  
  • promoting productive economic activity and formal employment through policies such as:
    •  
    • government credit provisions (paragraph 10)
    •  
    • labour inspection (paragraph 10)
    •  
    • tax incentives (paragraph 10) and

  •  
  • policies that promote:

    •  
    • education (paragraph 10)
    •  
    • vocational training (paragraph 10)
    •  
    • productive skills and employability (paragraph 10).

 

Guiding Principles[2]

 

The ILO Recommendation on SPF prescribes the following principles to guide the implementation of the programme:

 

Member nations are required to apply the following principles:

(a) universality of protection, based on social solidarity;

(b) entitlement to benefits prescribed by national law;

(c) adequacy and predictability of benefits;

(d) non-discrimination, gender equality and responsiveness to special needs;

(e) social inclusion, including of persons in the informal economy;

(f) respect for the rights and dignity of people covered by the social security guarantees;

(g) progressive realization, including by setting targets and time frames;

(h) solidarity in financing while seeking to achieve an optimal balance between the responsibilities and interests among those who finance and benefit from social security schemes;

(i) consideration of diversity of methods and approaches, including of financing mechanisms and delivery systems;

(j) transparent, accountable and sound financial management and administration;

(k) financial, fiscal and economic sustainability with due regard to social justice and equity;

(l) coherence with social, economic and employment policies;

(m) coherence across institutions responsible for delivery of social protection;

(n) high-quality public services that enhance the delivery of social security systems;

(o) efficiency and accessibility of complaint and appeal procedures;

(p) regular monitoring of implementation, and periodic evaluation;

(q) full respect for collective bargaining and freedom of association for all workers; and

(r) tripartite participation with representative organizations of employers and workers, as well as consultation with other relevant and representative organizations of persons concerned.

(paragraph 3).

 

 

 

 

 

Establishment of Legal framework

 

The ILO requires that the basic social security guarantees should be established by law (paragraph 7) based on national consultations through effective social dialogue and social participation (paragraph 13).

 

 

ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME (NHIS) ACT

 

Establishment

 

The NHIS was established by the National Health Insurance Scheme Act, 1999 but it fomally took off in 2005.

 

Key Objective

 

The Long Title to the Act states that the key objective is to ‘[ensure] access to good health care services to every Nigerian and protecting Nigerian families from financial hardship of huge medical bills…’.

 

The Condition for entitlement to healthcare services

 

Payment of rates of contribution as may be prescribed[3] from time to time by the Scheme’s Governing Council is the condition for accessing health services provided by the Scheme (see sections 16 and 17, NHIS Act). In other words, beneficiaries under the Scheme must have the financial ability to pay the prescribed rate of contribution. The poor who lack the financial capacity are thus clearly excluded. This is in spite of the fact that the NHIS is funded by grants from the Federal, State and Local Governments, as well as international or donor agencies (S. 11, NHIS Act).

 

Categories of Contributors

 

The NHIS Act provides for two categories of contributors (Ss. 16 and 17):

 

  • employee contributor, and
  •  
  • voluntary contributor.

 

An employer (whether in the private or public sector) ‘who has a minimum of ten employees’ (S. 16(1), is required to apply to register itself and its employees with the Scheme. The employer is empowered to deduct the contribution by the registered employees from their salaries and pay both its contribution and the employees’ contribution into the account of designated Health Maintenance Organizations (S. 17(1) and (2).

 

The ‘voluntary contributor’ is a person other than an employee who opts to register with the Scheme and pays the prescribed rate of contribution (S. 17(3).

 

 

FUNDAMENTAL WEAKNESSES OF THE NHIS

 

  1. ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES IS BASED ON ABILITY TO PAY; NOT BASED ON HEALTH AS A RIGHT

 

Considering the fact that access to health services under the NHIS is based on ability to pay the prescribed rate of contribution, and not on account of need for health services, it can be concluded that the NHIS is not founded on the recognition that access to health is a right. The ability to pay as a condition to be entitled to healthcare services is therefore an exclusionary policy. Employees working for an employer with less than ten employees are excluded, employees who do not earn enough as to be able to afford registering with the Scheme are excluded, the unemployed, poor farmers, the informal sector, children and the aged are equally excluded. From findings by journalists, the NHIS currently covers only between 4m and 5m contributors. This means that the Scheme covers only about 3% and excludes the remaining 97% of the population, based on 170million estimated population of Nigeria.

 

The exclusionary policy contained in the NHIS Act is contrary to the provisions of the ILO Recommendation on SPF and other international instruments, including the African Charter. The African Charter, just as the ICESCR and the UDHR, earlier referred to, provides in Article 16 that:

 

Article 16(1):

Every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health.

Article 16(2): State parties to the Charter are:

to take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick.

That overwhelming majority of Nigerians are excluded from the NHIS is shown by findings by newspaper journalists who variously established that since the Scheme officially took off in September 2005, only between 4 and 5m[4] contributors/beneficiaries have subscribed. So, almost all Nigerians, or around 170million people and at least 93% of the population are excluded from the NHIS.

 

  1. NHIS IS SET UP TO PROVIDE LIMITED AND DEFINED RANGE OF HEALTH SERVICES

 

The scope of health services provided to contributors by the NHIS is too limited. The NHIS is not set up to provide comprehensive health care based on the health condition of the contributors. For example, as Section 18 shows, ‘health care providers’ are to provide:

·         defined elements of curative care’ (S. 18(a);

·         prescribed drugs and diagonistic tests (S. 18(b), meaning they are to provide predetermined range of drugs and tests;

·         ‘maternity care for up to four live births for every insured person’ (S. 18(c), meaning children born after the fourth child are not entitled to health care services under the Act;

·         ‘consultation with defined range of specialists’ (S. 18(e);

·         ‘eye examination and care, excluding test and the actual provision of spectacles (S. 18(g); and

·         ‘a range of prosthesis and dental care as defined’ (S. 18(h).

The defined and limited range of health care services provided under the NHIS run contrary to Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), which provides that:

1.      The States parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

2.      The steps to be taken by the States parties to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for:

(a) The provision for the reduction of the still birth rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development of the child;

(b) The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene;

(c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases;

(d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical services and medical attention in the event of sickness.

 

  1. NHIS AS A SOURCE OF WASTE AND AVOIDABLE EXPENDITURE

 

The NHIS has a Governing Council, other full time Staff, national headquarters, zonal offices, zonal officers, registered Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), registered Health Care Providers, and so on[5]. The central purpose of the NHIS structure is geared towards enlisting ‘health care providers’ (that is, government and private health care practitioners, hospitals or maternity centres) to provide health services to insured persons or contributors. The Governing Council and the army of its full staff are not recognized to enter into contracts with health care providers. Contracting with health care providers for the purpose of rendering health care services under the Act is assigned to Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) (S. 20(e).

 

The Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) is defined as an organization ‘registered by the Governing Council to utilize its administration to provide health care services’ through approved health care centres (S. 49). Among others, a health maintenance organization collects contributions from ‘eligible contributors’, pays capitation fees for services rendered by health care providers (S. 20), and invest and mange the funds accruing to it from contributions received pursuant to the Act (S. 19(2).

 

It is my contention that the NHIS structure and modus operandi constitute a drain on public resources. It is similar to what operates in the US where the health system consists of largely private hospitals and other health facilities funded by private health insurance. However, the US system provides state insurance (medicare and mediaid) for the poor and elderly. On the basis of reliance on private hospitals (which the Nigerian NHIS Act calls ‘health care providers’), the US has the most expensive health care system in the world. But its health outcomes, for example, life expectancy and child mortality rates are almost the lowest of the developed countries. Large numbers of Americans (nearly 20% of the population) are not insured and have to pay their own fees if they fall ill.

The NHIS could exist as a unit of the Ministry of Health and staffed by public employees to carry out administrative functions, within a context where the State/government takes primary responsibility for health care, as a right. Even in the UK, the principle that health services should be available to all at the point of delivery is accepted across the political spectrum. The new leader of the Conservatives has recently said that they now accept that principle.

 

The capacity of public hospitals should be enhanced to render health services rather than relying primarily on private health care providers. In this way, more doctors and other medical staff would be required and employed. In that context, the NHIS would not require a Governing Council whose Chairman is appointed from the private sector (S. 2(3), NHIS Act) and earning salaries and allowances that could employ several health personnel. Contracting Health Maintenance Organisations to contract with health care providers would also be absolutely unnecessary. But the NHIS, as currently structured, is programmed to attain the neoliberal policy of the State passing responsibility for health care provisioning to the private sector. That is why one of the listed objectives of the NHIS is to ‘improve and harness private sector participation in the provision of health care services’ (S. 5(g), NHIS Act).

 

  1. NHIS ACT DOES NOT REFLECT THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES CONTAINED IN THE ILO SPF

 

Based on the three identified weaknesses above, it can be deduced that the NHIS Act is not governed by the guiding principles contained in the ILO’s SPF, which is itself based on existing international instruments.

 

It is clear from the foregoing that the following guiding principles stipulated in Paragraph 3 of the ILO Recommendation 202, are not observed in the NHIS Act:

 

  • universality of protection (Paragraph 3(a);
  •  
  • adequacy and predictability of benefits (Paragraph 3(c);
  •  
  • social inclusion, including of persons in the informal economy (Paragraph 3(e);
  •  
  • tripartite participation with representative organizations of employers and workers (Paragraph 3(r) – at least, it formally excludes representation of the TUC in the Governing Council.

 

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEE’S COMPENSATION ACT (ECA) 2010 AND ILO’S SPF

 

The Employee’s Compensation Act, ECA, 2010 can be related to ILO’s SPF to the extent that it may be presumed to represent an attempt to fulfill the right to health as far as industrial injuries are concerned. However, it is necessary to bear in mind that ECA is relevant only to compensations for any death, injury, disease or disability arising out of or in the course of employment.

By virtue of S. 26(1) of ECA,

In addition to the other compensation provided by this Act, the Board may provide for the injured employee any medical, surgical, hospital, nursing and other care or treatment, transport, medicines, crutches and apparatus, including artificial members, that it may consider reasonably necessary at the time of the injury and thereafter during the disability, to cure and relieve from the effects of the injury or alleviate those effects…

As indicated above, apart from healthcare and disability support, the ECA, in its Part IV (sections 17 to 30) recognises the following three broad categories or five specific categories of incapacity:

1.      Fatal cases – death, resulting from injury or disease

2.      Permanent Disability

a.       Permanent total disability

b.      Permanent partial disability or disfigurement

3.      Temporary Disability

a.       Temporary total disability

b.      Temporary partial disability

What is considered to be of particular relevance here is to determine whether the rates of compensation are adequate to ensure the standard of health as perceived in international instruments.

We may measure adequacy of compensation based on the categories of scale of compensation stated above:

1.      Fatal cases, i. e. Death

2.      Permanent Total Disability –

3.      Permanent Partial disability -

4.      Temporary Total Disability -

5.      Temporary Partial Disability -

In order to have a sense of the inadequacy or otherwise of the compensation rates under the Act, let us assume a deceased or injured worker on the minimum wage of N18,000 per month, for each of the above five categories of disability.

Measuring Adequacy of Compensation in the Event of Death of the Injured Employee (S. 19 and S. 17(1)(a)(i) subject to S. 17(1)(c) as regards a child-dependant)

The compensation payable here varies between 90 and 30 per cent of deceased employee’s earnings, for the lifetime of the beneficiary, depending on the number and composition of the dependants. For an employee on the minimum wage, this translates to between N16, 200 and N5, 400. The adequacy or inadequacy of compensation in this category can be imagined.

It should be noted that the dependants are denied the benefit of likely increased wages of the employee based on improvement in performance, increased number of years of practical experience, promotion based on training and educational development, and so on.

Also, whereas children are dependent on their parents, even after their studies until they secure gainful jobs, S. 17(1)(c) of the Act provides that ‘monthly payments to eligible children under this Act shall be made to children up to the age of 21 or until they complete undergraduate studies, whichever comes first’. In this era of widespread unemployment where what is certain is the unlikelihood of securing jobs after undergraduate studies, S. 17 (1) (c) of the Act is a harsh provision, which deprives children of deceased employees of compensation.

Measuring Adequacy of Compensation Based on Permanent Total Disability (Ss. 21(1) and 23), ECA).

The statutory provision under this subhead is periodic payment of 90 per cent of the employee’s earnings, until he attains 55 years of age, or if he is already 55 or more, then, for 2 years after the date of the injury.

Thus a 54-year old employee on N18, 000 per month will earn 90% of N18,000 or N16,200 per month for only one year for a ‘total disability’ that is ‘permanent’.

Measuring Adequacy of Compensation Based on Permanent Partial Disability (S. 22(2), ECA)

For a disability that is considered to be Permanent Partial Disability, the compensation is periodic payment of 90 per cent of an estimate of the loss of remuneration, which results from the disability or impairment, until the employee attains 55 years of age, or if he is already 55 or more, then, for 2 years after the date of the injury. For the employee on the minimum wage scale, for whom the estimate of the loss of remuneration is considered to be 50%, his compensation will be 90% of N9,000, which gives a take home pay of N8,100 per month for one year, until he attains 55 years of age.

In the case of Temporary Disability, whether Total (S. 24(1), ECA) or Partial (S. 25(1), which lasts for not more than 12 months, only a Lump sum payment (that is, a once and for all payment) based on the degree of disability in accordance with the Second Schedule to the Act will be paid. Thus, in the case of loss of limb or Loss of both hands or of all fingers and thumbs for which the Second Schedule to the Act provides for 100% degree of disability, the maximum lump sum compensation, which an employee on the National Minimum Wage is entitled to is  N18,000.

The big question is: are these rates of compensation for industrial hazards adequate to maintain health as defined by WHO and UDHR? The evidence provided above suggests that this is clearly not the case. The Employee’s Compensation Act, 2010 does not provide for adequate compensation in line with international standards and norms, which the Government of Nigeria has signed up to.

 

THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS

 

The trade unions have a responsibility to accept and campaign nationally for it to become a societal norm that the State has primary obligation to:

  •  
  • Accept that health care is a fundamental right which is supplied free to all citizens when it is needed.
  •  
  • Accept primary responsibility for health services to all its citizens.
  •  
    • The basic issue which NHIS raises is: who should pay the cost of health care? Should health care be accessed only by those who can afford to pay or should governments provide for all, particularly the poor?
    •  
    • The fact that all economies are subject to economic booms and recessions is a strong reason why government should be made responsible for health care. In recession, unemployment increases as well as diseases of poverty and stress. Thus, many people need health services most when they can least afford to pay for them or when they are no longer insured through their work.
  • :
  • Health care services should be paid for from general taxation, rather than relying on health insurance schemes.
    •  
    • There tends to be much less direct control of health expenditure where health insurance schemes are used, which explains why countries such as the US and France have so much trouble controlling their health costs. For example, the US spends more on administering its health insurance system per person than the total health-spend per person in all but the most developed 35 countries.
    •  
    • Also, health insurance emphasizes curing of illness rather than prevention, whereas prevention is much more efficient especially in Africa where diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, HIV/AIDS etc could be avoided much more cheaply than the cost of their treatment.
  •  
  • Assume primary responsibility for implementing ILO’s SPF without shifting responsibility to the private sector. The private sector should contribute through general corporation tax. Schemes other than the system by which the State accepts primary responsibility for health care to all the citizens have proved to be inefficient and costly to administer.
  • Amend the NHIS Act, particularly to remove all provisions, which make it exclusionary. The effect of the exclusionary character of the NHIS is that when families belonging to the excluded 93% of the population fall sick, they have to beg, steal or borrow to access health care. The result is unnecessary death, disease, pain and suffering. Concerns and worries from attempting to repay the debt incurred in accessing health care could also result in long term poverty and other stress-related health conditions.
  • Ratify and implement, as indicated in Paragraph 18 of the ILO Recommendation 202, the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), other ILO social security Conventions and Recommendations setting out more advanced standards, as well as other relevant UN instruments, such as the ICESCR.
  •  
  • Accept and campaign that the right to health is not just the absence of diseases or infirmity but a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing (Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, WHO).

 

For the avoidance of any doubt, Article 25(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) has expatiated and clarified WHO’s definition of the right to health:

 

  • Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control

 

The understanding in both the WHO definition of health and Article 25(1) of the UDHR places a responsibility on civil society, including the trade union movement, to demand that governments should implement other socio-economic rights as part and parcel of the right to life (guaranteed under S. 33 of the 1999 Constitution) and the right to health, which the NHIS purportedly sets out to fulfill.

 

CONCLUSION

We live in an age which is characterized by many successful attempts to hijack the State from serving the interests of the poor and marginalized to serving only the interests of the wealthy, exploiters and looters of the public patrimony. The age when UDHR was declared is gradually giving way to the age when aggressive efforts are being made to take away these rights, not only at national levels but also at international levels.  Advocacy for those rights and the primary role of the State to implement socio-economic rights should be combined with practical protests, rallies and strikes for their full realization.

Every human right has a relationship to the right to life. To that extent, every right should be:

o   Universal,

o   Inalienable,

o   Equal,

o   Indivisible,

o   Interdependent and

o   Interrelated’.

Similarly, under international human rights law, membership of the United Nations is accompanied by certain obligations on the part of the ratifying State. Every State has the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. The obligation to respect means that the state must not interfere with the enjoyment of given rights; the obligation to protect implies that the State restrains third parties who may infringe on the rights of others while the obligation to fulfill means that the state takes positive measures to promote enjoyment of rights. These obligations of the state under international law would not be observed unless the working masses take practical action to protect and advance their rights.

The Nigerian labour movement should learn from its South African counterpart where civil organizations are formed by trade unions to carry out massive protests for provision of housing, against forceful eviction, lack of access to water and electricity, including active campaigns against disconnection of non-payers.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Statutes Cited

Employee’s Compensation Act, 2010

National Health Insurance Scheme Act, 1999.

Websites

http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:3065524 (R202 - Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202)

http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/ilo-bookstore/order-online/books/WCMS_146616/lang--en/index.htm (Extending social security to all – A guide through challenges and options)

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/secsoc/downloads/bachelet.pdf (Social protection floor for a fair and inclusive globalization)

 

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/secsoc/downloads/bachelet.pdf (UNICEF-ILO Social Protection Floor (SPF) Costing Tool Explanatory Note)











 

 



[1]Being paper delivered at a Workshop organized by the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Foundation on the theme "Social Protection and the Decent Work Agenda in the Food. Beverage and Tobacco Industry: Issues Arising" on 19th- 20th April, 2013 at Grand Inn and Suites, IJebu-Ode, Ogun State
[2] In this subsection, the statements in bold formats from ‘a-r’ are author’s addition.
[3] In reality, the employer pays 10 per cent of the employees’ basic salary while the employee contributes five per cent of his/her basic salary. A policy usually covers a couple and four children under the age of 18 (http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/health-insurance-scheme-still-in-a-shambles/).
[5] Currently, findings by journalists reveal that 61 Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) have been accredited and registered by NHIS in addition to about 6,000 primary care providers, 1,000 ancillary providers, and over 600 secondary and tertiary providers (See notation number 2 above).

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