"God Will Protect Me" Is Not a Health Plan

"Health insurance?" He laughed.

"God forbid. I am covered by the blood of Jesus."

The rest of us laughed too and moved on to the next topic.

To be fair, it wasn't even a strange thing to say.

If you have spent enough time around Nigerians, you have probably heard some version of it before.

A few months later, somebody mentioned him again. This time, the conversation was very different.

There were hospital visits, tests, bills, and more tests.

The conversation had moved from "God forbid" to "How much will it cost?" 

That's when it occurred to me. Why does health insurance make so many people uncomfortable?

For many people, the issue isn't the policy itself, it is what the policy represents.

The moment health insurance enters the conversation, some people start thinking about hospitals, sickness, bad news, and everything they would rather not imagine.

Mention health insurance in some circles and you will hear responses like: "I don't claim it." "Nothing will happen to me." "God forbid."

As if preparing for a possibility makes it more likely to happen.🤣

Which is interesting because we don't apply that logic anywhere else.

Most of us lock our doors before going to bed, we save money for emergencies, we back up important files, we buy generators before the power goes out.

Nobody sees those things as a lack of faith, they're simply precautions.

Yet when health comes into the picture, preparation becomes controversial.

Health insurance is not a prediction, it is not a declaration that sickness is coming.

It is not an admission of defeat, it is simply a way of making sure a health challenge doesn't become a financial crisis, because when unexpected medical situations happen, the first question is definitely not your belief, it's usually: "How much will this cost?"

"God Will Protect Me" Is Not a Health Plan.

The funny thing is that I experienced this myself recently.

I wasn't feeling great over the weekend, so I decided to visit the hospital. There was a consultation, a few tests, and medication. I already knew I was covered through my HMO, so I wasn't particularly concerned about payment.

What surprised me was something else, by the time everything was done, my consultation, tests, and medication had all been covered through my HMO. The total cost of care came to ₦4,580.

Honestly, I expected it to be much higher.

As someone who has paid for healthcare out of pocket many times, I know that the same visit would have felt very different if I had to bear the full cost myself.

And that's really the point.

Preparation helped me access care without worrying about payment, while health insurance helped keep the cost of that care affordable in the first place. It's easy to think of health insurance as an extra expense until you experience the alternative.

Most people don't think about health insurance until they need it. But when that moment comes, the value isn't just in the money saved. It's in knowing that a routine health issue doesn't immediately become a financial concern.

Faith is important. Preparation is too. Most of us already understand that in every other area of life. Maybe healthcare shouldn't be the exception.

At Medismarts, we're helping healthcare providers and HMOs build better systems that make healthcare more accessible and efficient for everyone.

Learn more about what we do on our website.