Tanzania: Relief As Over 20,000 Tanzanians Are Insured

By Daily News Reporter in Dodoma

AT least 21,204 Tanzanians have so far registered with diverse health insurance packages introduced recently by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for maximising health coverage in the

country.

At friendly charges from 192,000/- per year per individual (equivalent to 500/- per day) the three newly introduced packages designed by NHIF targets to allow more Tanzanians to join health schemes according to their financial position. The crowd-puller packages are 'Najali Afya, Wekeza Afya and Timiza Afya.

In his remarks during the launch of a public awareness campaign on new services in Dodoma Region, NHIF Managing Director Bernard Kongwa said the reason for it was to make the country comply with universal health coverage.

"Up to September this year, it was only 8.5 per cent of Tanzanians who had joined NHIF services. We have decided to initiate new and affordable packages to ensure more Tanzanians have access to health insurance," he said.

Apart from expressing delight over the impressive number of insured Tanzanians, Mr Kongwa urged members of the public to inculcate in them a culture of banking on health services.

"Most Tanzanians are still ignorant of health insurance services available in the country. This is a big challenge as we continue to witness deaths due to failure or delays in accessing treatment," he noted.

He explained that NHIF services were available at 7,400 health facilities from across the country and plans were underway to extend key services to more areas.

For her part, former National Assembly Speaker Anne Makinda, who was the guest of honour at the event in her remarks, urged Tanzanians to minimise chances of contacting non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

According to her, there is an increase in the prevalence of NCDs among Tanzanians due to unhealthy lifestyles and poor nutrition.

However, apart from challenging members of the public to see the need of joining NHIF services, she urged health workers at different facilities to treat patients while wearing gloves.

"Some health workers prefer non-insured to insured patients going to their health facilities because the former pay in cash.

This is unprofessional and must come to an end," she expressed. Contrary to former days when most of NHIF members were civil servants, the current scheme has been designed to ensure entrepreneurs, farmers, under 18 children and private sector employees access health services.

Statistics show that NHIF has been given more money to cover the treatment of cancer (at least 69,989,72/- per one member in a year) and dialysis at least 35,805,800/- per one member in a year.

NHIF provides also supplementary health packages, namely air evacuation, ambulance, medical bill abroad, branded medicine as spectacles.