Abdu Adem Yesufe, Program Director of Adult Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC), shared a post on LinkedIn by Yakob S Ahmed, Country Director at ReachAnother Foundation, and Co-Founder and Family Medical Network Chair of the Family Insurance – Health and Life, adding:
“I found it a very useful and strategic step to address one of the major root causes of healthcare delivery in our country.
Quoting Yakob S Ahmed’s post:
“Africa’s health financing model is changing. Fast.
For years, donor funding played a stabilizing role covering roughly 13.5% of health expenditure in 2022.
That era is fading.
Aid is declining.
Domestic fiscal space is tightening.
Health needs are expanding.
At the same time, climate shocks, conflict-driven displacement, and a global retreat from multilateralism are placing unprecedented pressure on already fragile health systems.
This is not a temporary shock.
It is a structural shift.
And it demands a new way of thinking about health system financing in Africa.
Formal insurance was supposed to help fill the gap. It hasn’t yet.
Across most of the continent, insurance penetration remains well below the global average.
Not because the idea is flawed.
But because the ecosystem is.
On the demand side:
- Informal employment
- Irregular incomes
- Low financial literacy
- A deep trust deficit
On the supply side:
- High operating costs
- Weak data for pricing risk
- Limited confidence in provider quality
- Little product innovation
Add macroeconomic volatility and misaligned incentives between insurers, regulators, and health ministries and the gap widens.
Affordability remains the hardest truth.
In contexts of extreme poverty, even ‘low-cost’ premiums can be unaffordable.
Evidence is clear: enrollment is highly price-sensitive.
But it also shows something hopeful.
Partial subsidies work.
They significantly increase uptake among low-income households.
This is where private health insurance can become part of the solution, not the problem.
Not as a standalone fix.
Not as an elite product.
But as a strategic partner to national health systems.
Private health insurance can:
- Mobilize domestic resources at scale
- Pool risk more efficiently
- Drive accountability and quality among providers
- Innovate with flexible, context-appropriate products
- Integrate digital tools to lower costs and improve trust
When aligned with public policy, smart regulation, and targeted subsidies, private insurers can help extend coverage to populations long excluded from formal systems.
The question is no longer whether Africa can rely on donors. It cannot.
The real question is:
Can we redesign private health insurance to serve public health goals affordably, transparently, and at scale?
If we get that right, private health insurance won’t replace public systems.
It will strengthen them.
And in this new fiscal reality, that may be one of the most practical paths forward.
What do you think?”
More posts featuring Abdu Adem Yesufe.