IRA plans to regulate health financing schemes

Bank of Uganda governor Tumusiime Mutebile (C) with Gold Star Insurance Company Ltd staff, managers and directors cut a cake to at the launch. PHOTO BY STEPHEN WANDERA 

 

 

 

By FARIDAH KULABAKO

The Insurance Regulatory Authority plans to start regulating Community Based Health Financing Schemes (CBHFS) to streamline service provision, increase transparency and grow insurance penetration.

Although there are currently 24 active member schemes under the Uganda Community-Based Health Financing Association (UCBHFA), with a total of 117,583 individual beneficiaries, according to the association coordinator, Mr Joseph Kiggundu, they are not regulated.

Speaking in a meeting in Kampala on Thursday, the IRA chief executive officer, Mr Ibrahim Kaddunabbi, said this will work in the interest of scheme users who at times fall victims to self-seeking individuals that run away with their monies.

The CBHFS arrangement is a self-help initiative and form of social insurance that helps low-income earners, especially the informal sector, access quality healthcare on an individual or family basis where public health services are inadequate.

The schemes are formed on the basis of mutual aid and collective pooling of health risks, in which members participate in its management.

The arrangement
Under the arrangement, people organise themselves into groups and establish a fund to pool together resources, which are then used to pay members’ medical bills. Members pay annual premiums of between Shs10,000 and Shs15,000 per head.


Mr Kaddunabbi said since schemes have been proven to be an attractive option in funding the health systems of other developing countries, they have potential to address the inadequate funding challenge facing Uganda’s health system and grow penetration levels.

Low–income earners without employer funded health insurance schemes, are facing a challenge of accessing quality medical care, which is expensive, yet they have to pay the bills out of their pockets.

With this arrangement, Mr Kiggundu said, members have a cover to help them access early quality healthcare, protect their families against health expenditures and build a saving culture.