I lost a client over a benefit table.

Here is what that cost me — and what it should save you.

Six weeks of negotiation with a consulting firm in Lagos. Good people. We went line by line through the benefit table — maternity caps, admission days, global limits, whether their preferred hospital stayed in network. I answered everything honestly. They went with another HMO because the price was lower.

On a benefit-table comparison, every HMO is one column among four — and the cheapest column wins. That is not a sales problem. That is what happens when a buyer has no way to tell the columns apart.

The problem was never their decision. It was that nobody had ever shown them what to actually compare. So they compared the only number they understood, which was the premium — and the premium is the one number that tells you least about whether a plan will pay when someone is on a hospital bed.

Since then I stopped opening with plans. I open with a question instead: what does staff illness already cost you? Almost nobody knows.

My name is Azuka. I handle corporate partnerships at ClearlineHMO — the HMO owned by GreenLife Pharmaceuticals, the people who make Lonart DS. I am not going to pretend I am neutral. I sell health insurance for a living. What I will do is tell you the things my industry usually does not.

Four minutes on how the free screening actually works — what happens on the morning, what your staff get, what you get, and what it costs you. Which is nothing.

Before you choose, renew or complain about an HMO.

Most people compare HMOs by premium alone — the one number that tells you least about whether a plan pays when somebody is on a bed. Eight questions, your results with no email wall, and a 20-page guide you can keep.

A reason to come back that is not a sales message.

Could you produce ₦800,000 by tomorrow morning?

Gbagada General is a public hospital. That is the subsidised price. Mid-tier private runs ₦1.5m to ₦2m for the same procedure; high-end Lagos reaches ₦3m. Roughly three naira in every four spent on health in Nigeria still comes straight out of somebody's pocket, on the day.

The calculator below does not guess at a frightening number. It shows you the arithmetic — every probability, every cost, every source — and then asks you one question about your own life. Ninety seconds, nothing stored.

Seven tools, live on this page

Every one runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. Close the tab and it is gone.

Losses are credible. Wins are suspicious. Here are both.

I have no wall of testimonials, because I have not yet asked five companies for one. What I have are named clients who did their own diligence, and one loss that taught me more than any of them.

A Tier-1 Nigerian bank has also written ClearlineHMO a formal letter of recommendation praising the provider network, prompt authorisations and responsiveness. It carries a confidentiality clause, so it is not reproduced here — I will show it to you in a meeting if you ask.

The app for the worst part — standing at the desk, being told it is not covered.

Everything above helps you decide. This one helps once you already have cover, at the exact moment cover usually fails people: at the counter, with a queue behind you, and nobody to call.

Questions people actually ask

More at the full FAQ page and the privacy policy.

ClearlineHMO · 290 Ikorodu Road, Anthony, Lagos

Head office. I cover the South-South and Delta corridor from Asaba and Benin City — if you are in Edo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River or Akwa Ibom, I come to you.