It’s a classic clash between right and mercy — the sad story of Mrs. Chinenye Agu.

She has been “detained” with her new baby at Ifechukwu Hospital, Umuoji, in Idemili South local government of Anambra State, since she was delivered of her baby, via caesarian surgery, last May. She is in her fourth month, “trapped” in the hospital, because she couldn’t pay the full fees, after service delivery.

Her story is pithy and moving. She got a bill for N480, 000. She paid N340, 000. She got stuck on the balance of N140, 000. To secure the remainder, the hospital has refused to discharge her. On the sentimental plain, that would appear harsh. But really, it is not because the hospital is no charity and is bound to recover its costs to continue being in business.

Besides, the hospital met the patient virtually midway: not insisting on full payment before a birth surgery, knowing complications like these might follow. So, though the craving for mercy in such cases is natural, let no one demonize the hospital for claiming its right — except those who can pay the hospital its due fees and logically close the transaction.

We are not unaware of Mrs. Agu’s dire straits, which caused the meltdown in the first instance. Her husband, Anthony Agu, lost her livelihood while his wife was pregnant. He was a cabbie but thieves stole his vehicle. Now, he ekes a living as a bus boy, from which daily returns he had somewhat been making little contributions to offset the bill — more like re-filling a roaring ocean with spoonfuls of water! Brave — but sad!

How long would such puny returns defray the N140, 000 balance? Besides, by Mrs. Agu occupying bed and space, the hospital is hemorrhaging too. To secure payment for service already rendered, it has to sacrifice facilities it ought to have used to generate further return on investment. If it dares to charge for these facilities, it would be labelled as soulless. Yet, that would be the rational business call!

The plea that the hospital should let go of mother and child, while the husband continues the gradual defrayment makes emotive sense. But in practical value, it’s near-worthless. Mrs. Agu’s best bet here is her appeal to good-natured people who can donate to offset her bill. Both patient and hospital are victims here. The issue cannot be resolved by sweet sentiments that leave one of the victims in the lurch.

Still, it’s all avoidable stuff, if Mrs. Agu and her husband had taken the right steps ab initio. There is something to the call that public hospitals be well funded and better run, with their doctors, nurses and other health service providers well motivated.

So, if Mrs. Agu had gone to a public maternity, it is doubtful if her bill, even for a caesarian section, would be anything near N480, 000. It could be said that it was her first birth; and her decision was basically psychological, given her low trust level of public hospitals. That is understandable but it hardly explains why she would put herself and baby in the present bind. Since she didn’t have the cash, she should not have patronized a private hospital.

But beyond that, there is a window that could even have granted her access to private sector health care, without tearing her pocket at the critical point of need: health insurance.

Health insurance is the backbone of global health delivery. If it had been well mainstreamed in Nigeria, Mrs. Agu and husband would have paid far less: since previous monthly premiums would have absorbed most, if not all, of the cost.

In fact, Mrs. Agu’s odyssey should drive governments at all levels to vigorously push health insurance in the informal sector: trader-wife, transporter-husband, this is a good case study on how health insurance can help the most humble of Nigerian families to pay for critical health care, without losing their dignity.

Good-natured donors should please donate to Mrs. Agu’s appeal fund so she could go home. But the Agus — and millions of other Nigerians like them — should avoid entering into transactions they cannot fund. Empathy is sweet and noble. But it doesn’t ease the hard and prickly bottom line.

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