Liberia launches Health Insurance Policy for Vulnerable Citizens

In a move to expand healthcare access across Liberia, the Government has officially launched the country’s first health insurance policy for vulnerable citizens.

By Kruah Thompson

Monrovia, June 6, 2025: The policy, a pilot project, was unveiled at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs, and Tourism’s (MICAT) weekly press briefing on Thursday, June 5, 2025.

It targets between 3,000 to 5,000 individuals across Montserrado, Margibi, and Bomi counties and it’s expected to run for the period of six month.

The initiative is a joint effort involving the National Insurance Corporation of Liberia (NICOL), the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), and the National Identification Registry (NIR), all of whom over the week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to roll out what is being described as a foundational step toward achieving universal health coverage in Liberia.

Speaking at the press briefing, Abdullah Swaray, Acting Managing Director of NICOL, emphasized that the pilot is in direct response to a mandate issued by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai during his inauguration in 2024.

According to Swaray, the President instructed his administration to ensure that no Liberian should be denied healthcare access simply because they cannot afford it.

Under the agreement, NICOL will provide the insurance coverage, participating health facilities will offer medical diagnosis and treatment to vollurable cotizen, and the bills will be settled by the insure who is pay through NICOL.

“The MOU signals the importance of interagency collaboration. It shows that if there is national will, government institutions can work together in real time to deliver solutions through technology.” Swaray noted

However, he says the Liberia Telecommunications Authority is tasked with the responsibility of providing the technological infrastructure to facilitate the process by ensuring a fraud-free enrollment process.

Also, Chairperson of the LTA, Abdullah L. Kamara, expressed satisfaction with the digital support his institution is about to provide, saying that “We are proud to bring digital tools to support this health coverage initiative.

The LTA is a key sponsor of the pilot program under our broader digital transformation agenda,” Kamara said.

While full details of the program are still being refined, Kamara noted that the pilot phase, starting next month, will help test and improve the system before it is scaled up nationwide.

The Executive Director, Andrew Peters, of the National Identification Registry (NIR), who is also playing a critical role in implementing the pilot project, notes that national ID cards will be a requirement for enrollment in the program.

To enrol more people under the program, he says, they have established 200 additional enrollment centers across Liberia, deployed 500 mobile biometric registration kits, and built six regional data centers.

Meanwhile, he says, this six-month pilot project is expected to inform future legislation that could institutionalize the program and extend coverage to a wider segment of the population, thereby ensuring that Liberia’s most vulnerable are not left behind in accessing quality healthcare.