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What each one is

  • An HMO plan: an annual contract with a health maintenance organisation. The member shows a card at a network hospital, the hospital gets an authorisation code, and treatment within the plan's limits is paid. Nobody visits, nobody reports back. Individual plans in Lagos ran from about N24,000 to over N700,000 a year in 2025 and 2026.
  • A home-care agency: a caregiver (about N119,000 to N159,000 a month in Lagos, 2026) or a registered nurse (about N219,000 to N259,000 a month) in the home, daily or live-in. Hands-on help; no health benefits, so hospital bills are still cash.
  • Billed monthly, a Kinship Plan is £20 a month for the Kinship care team, Kemi on WhatsApp and one shared family record. A named Kinkeeper comes with visits. Visits add £40, £75 or £140 a month for 1, 2 or 4 visits per month, making monthly totals of £60, £95 or £160. Brothers and sisters can chip in as one payment.

Where each one is strong

  • HMO: the cheapest way to make a hospital visit affordable. Best for someone well enough not to need anyone at home, in a city with a good network.
  • Agency: the only option for someone who needs help every day with washing, meals or moving, or clinical care at home. Best chosen by a family member in person.
  • Kinship: for the far larger group in between: someone managing, with a condition or with age, whose family abroad wants treatment paid for and a qualified person checking in and reporting back. The plan is theirs, and updates go to the people they choose.

Where each one falls short

  • HMO: limits can be exhausted by one admission on basic tiers; waiting periods of 3 to 12 months for surgery and chronic care; delayed authorisation codes are the most common complaint; many Lagos hospitals still ask for a cash deposit on admission.
  • Agency: no benefits, so an emergency is still a cash call; quality depends entirely on the individual sent; the family hears what the carer chooses to tell them.
  • Kinship: visits are scheduled support, not daily care or clinical procedures. Visits are in Lagos today. Hospital bills, medicines and tests are paid separately.

Questions to ask any of the three

  • Who exactly turns up, what are their qualifications, and who checks their work?
  • What are the annual limits, in naira, and the waiting periods?
  • How does the family abroad find out what happened, and how soon?
  • What happens in an emergency at 2am, and who pays the deposit?
  • Can several relatives share the cost without one of them collecting from the others?

Who we help

Start with your situation and see how the plan applies to it.

Who we help

Related

Sources

  1. HMO plan prices 2025 (Nairametrics)
  2. Lagos HMO comparison and hospital deposits (lagos.cool, May 2026)
  3. An HMO's published individual plan schedule: limits, waiting periods and exclusions (2025)
  4. NHIA 2024 complaints report (Guardian Nigeria)
  5. A Lagos home-care agency's published caregiver and nurse rates (May 2026)
  6. The Kinship Plan, live prices

Prices in naira are quoted with their date because they move. Where a figure comes from a commercial provider, the source is described rather than named, and nothing on this page recommends a provider.

This page is information, not advice. Kinship wrote it from the sources listed above and checked it on the date shown. It is not medical, legal, financial or insurance advice, and it does not take account of any one person's circumstances. Decisions about treatment belong with the person and their doctor; decisions about money, insurance or immigration with the person and a qualified adviser. Our platform terms apply.