Clients’ experience of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, Abuja

NHIS is designed to provide easy access to healthcare for all Nigerians. It was rolled out in 2006. The quality of care expected, achievement of the goals and sustainability need to be evaluated. This survey served as a measure to ascertain the expected satisfaction. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 300 respondents randomly selected from NHIS clients from 14th February – 30th March 2018 with a self-administered modified questionnaire, which assessed satisfaction domains of the client. Associations between dependent and independent variables were subjected to Chi square test and Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC). Results: Most respondents were females 64.7 % (194), age range of 38 – 47 years had the highest percentage frequency distribution (33.7%). Most respondent marital status was married 244 (81.3%). They were predominantly civil servants (42.0%). The educational status shows 188 (62.7%) tertiary education. Most respondents felt waiting time was too long 39.7% (119) with health information; and 38.0% (114) with code generation unit. 169 (56.3%) respondents said that they do not get an explanation for the non-availability of the prescribed services. 33.3% respondents pay for drugs out of pockets and 37.0% (111), pay for laboratory services. Findings: NHIS is on-going with many enrollees and the aforementioned units need improvement. Conclusion: Since Ӽ_cal^2 (138.03) is greater than Ӽ_tab^2 (7.81) at the 0.05 significant level, it can be concluded that both the observed and expected distributions differ significantly. That is, there is a significant difference in the level of satisfaction of individuals under the NHIS.