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Health insurance scheme on drawing table

PIUS RUGONZIBWA
Daily News; Thursday,November 13, 2008 @21:15

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Tanzania will soon introduce the Social Health Insurance Scheme in which majority of the poor and disadvantaged people in the country will be covered. A workshop to study the system took place in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday in which the agenda on implementation of ‘Social Health Protection, a Diversity of Approaches’ was discussed.

Opening the workshop, the French Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Jacques Champagne de Labriolle, said that his country and others in the European Union were keen to see Tanzania introducing the system because of its impact on helping to alleviate poverty, fostering economic development and ensuring human safety.

“Strengthening Health Financing Systems is a priority of French Presidency of the European Union and our idea is to try to involve more the European Union and its members in strengthening the systems in order to improve coverage for all, and ensure access to efficient and functioning health service for the poor and vulnerable,” said Ambassador de Labriolle.

He said his country and other European countries especially the G8 were committed to provide technical and financial support in their campaign popularly known as ‘Providing for Health (P4H)’ to countries that commit to build Social Health Protection Systems like Tanzania was intending to do.

The ambassador said the first essential obligation was for the government to ensure it formulated suitable national strategies, regulate the organization of health services and guarantee access to health for all. Mr de Labriolle expressed optimism that stakeholders like the private sector play a crucial role in meeting qualitative and quantitative requirements of health care provision, saying it was an approach that the country could adopt towards the implementation of the system.

The workshop called for the government to put in place a policy on social health protection, including general plan to provide all groups of the society with health insurance coverage including specific schemes for the informal sector and especially for the poor. Case studies were discussed from countries like Ghana which was already introducing the system, and Ivory Coast, and Gabon which were on the verge of implementation.

It was learnt during the workshop however; that experiences in various countries suggest that developing the Social Health Insurance in the informal sector can be successful where there is a balance between social participation and reliable technical management and where relations are established between skilled public and private health insurance funds.

Speaking shortly after the opening of the workshop, the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Israel Kamuzora, said that the government was expecting to gather enough expertise that would enable it to introduce the system after it managed to do so for public and private insurances schemes about a decade ago.

“So far we are doing better with the two systems, and we are looking for stakeholders to come up with advices and technical assistance on how best the government can now introduce and implement this new system for the benefit of the largest population in the country,” said Mr Kamuzora.

The workshop also discussed about possible challenges likely to face the implementation process of the system mostly being the accessibility, equal division and management of the resources to be used during the implementation. About 50 participants from Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, development partners, international agencies, NGOs, researchers, Private sector, and social health insurance schemes attended the workshop.

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