Experts: Do this to save NHIF from imminent collapse
What you need to know:
- The country must also make it compulsory for all Tanzanians to have a health insurance plan as a way of increasing the pool of member contributions which will bring new breath into the Fund.
Dar es Salaam. Experts have proposed at least ten measures to be taken in a bid to rescue the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), whose poor financial position might lead to its collapse.
Insurance and social security experts told The Citizen yesterday that a short-term measure was that the government should bailout the fund. It should also design social bonds to raise funds through the capital market.
Instead of leaving NHIF purely under the Ministry of Health, the government should also consider putting it under the regulatory role of the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (Tira).
Its benefits and price level should also be restructured while health insurance must be made compulsory for all Tanzanians.
“There is a need for NHIF to be regulated. At the same time, hospitals that accept NHIF cards must be connected to the Tira system so that they can be regulated through digital innovations,” suggested the Insurance Commissioner at Tira, Dr Baghayo Saqware.
The regulation system would also involve management changes in terms of skills set, systems and commercial aspects of insurance business.
Putting NHIF under Tira’s regulatory mechanism would mean that the sector’s regulator would actively monitor the fund’s investment, spending, products and give advice and directives at all times.
The country must also make it compulsory for all Tanzanians to have a health insurance plan as a way of increasing the pool of member contributions which will bring new breath into the Fund.
Speaking at the official opening of a 5-day regional cholera readiness capacity building seminar on Monday, Health minister Ummy Mwalimu said NHIF could potentially collapse due to increased claims.
“Increasing public awareness is vital in the fight against infectious diseases. For instance, our health insurance [NHIF] will soon collapse as it is overwhelmed by a rise in claims which are related to non-communicable disease (NCD),” Ms Mwalimu warned.
Ms Mwalimu said Tanzania needed to embark on public awareness campaign that spots the signs and symptoms of diseases and how to prevent them.
Experts say the need for NHIF to Tanzania’s economy and the health of its people need not be overstated.
Official data, produced by the Health ministry in May this year, showed that until December 2021, it was only a total of 9.094 million Tanzanians, representing about 15 percent of the population, that were under a health insurance plan. Thus, initiatives to save NHIF would positively impact lives of millions of Tanzanians who subscribe to the fund.
“That is why we must do everything to save the fund so that the millions of its beneficiaries would continue accessing health services,” said an insurance expert from the Africa College of Insurance and Social Protection, Mr Anselmi Anselmi.
He said failure to save the fund would have catastrophic outcomes on people who undergo costly treatment procures such as dialysis and others if they cannot pay from their pockets. It would also affect financial institutions and investment firms.
“The Community Health Fund (CHF) will lose a guardian or backup and thus many more people will lose their medical insurance covers,” he emphasized.
He suggested that a quick actuarial diagnosis of the scheme should be conducted to assess feasible or sustainable pricing vs. benefits level.
“We should re-structure benefits or price levels. We need a re-look at providers’ payment mechanisms and opt for the most efficient ones such as capitation or a fee per case,” he said.
The government should also design a rescue financing package to stabilise the Fund while other measures such as seeking soft loans from banks or development institutions as well as social bonds are designed to raise funds through the capital markets.
An Insurance and Risk Management lecturer at the Institute of Finance Management (IFM), Mr Frank Kitende, said it was not uncommon for a fund that serves a large number of citizens such as pension and health insurance to reach a point of collapsing.
“We have seen such cases even in developed countries….What is needed is for the government to inject funds to rescue the situation,” he said.
If such a fund fails to work, he said, it will have serious effects on the economy, because people will fail to be treated and as a result development activities will go down.
“It will be difficult to contain non-communicable diseases,” he said, calling upon the government to take swift action to rescue the Fund.
