Samia assents to Universal Health Insurance Bill
What you need to know:
- With the president's ratification, the Healthy Ministry can now start formulating regulations to start the implementation of the law, which will enable every Tanzanian to get health services with or without money.
Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has signed into law the Universal Health Insurance Bill, which seeks to ensure the protection of all through Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
The Universal Health Insurance Bill was unanimously endorsed by the entire parliament on November 2, 2023, after five years of deliberations since 2018.
According to the statement issued by the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender and Elderly the bill was Gazetted on December 1, 2023.
With the president's ratification, the Healthy Ministry can now start formulating regulations to start the implementation of the law, which will enable every Tanzanian to get health services with or without money.
In the new Act, the government proposed six main measures with a view to cater for health needs of over 15.8 million poor Tanzanians (around 26 percent of the population) so to attain UHC.
By September 2023, a paltry 15.3 percent of Tanzanian population were estimated to be insured.
The sources include service levies on carbonated drinks, liquor, cosmetics, gaming tax, motor vehicle insurance, and electronic transaction levies.
Health financing was a one of the key issue raised when the Universal Health Coverage Bill was tabled for the first reading in Parliament in September 2022.
During the tabling the Bill on November 2, Minister for the health minister Ms Ummy Mwalimu told the parliament that the government had suggested the establishment of a special fund that will settle the cost of health insurance for vulnerable groups in the country.
According to her, a special mechanism will be employed in the identification and registration of people who are vulnerable to inability to pay medical fees. The group will be included under the public health insurance scheme as stipulated by the guidelines.
“In accordance with the Bill every Tanzanian will be required to enrol into a health insurance scheme to ensure medical services are rendered to them without challenges even if they couldn’t afford the services at the time of sickness,”
“The government will employ statistics from the Household Budget Survey of 2017/2018 that shows that 26.4 percent of all Tanzanians are poor. In accordance with the statistics, the Population and Housing Census of 2022 indicate that over 15.8 million of them comprise vulnerable groups which is equivalent to over 3.6 households and those living in abject poverty stand at over 4 million people (8 per cent),” said Ms Mwalimu.
She noted that the government will strictly supervise the process to ensure poor households are not left out.
“In accordance with the Bill every Tanzanian will be required to enrol in the health insurance scheme to ensure people obtain medical services without having challenges, even during challenging times," she said.
The Minister further revealed that the special fund will be used to facilitate medical services for people suffering chronic and lifetime diseases such as kidney complications, cancer, as well as emergencies resulting from accidents.
“We have been receiving a lot of complaints about people failing to meet the cost of treating for chronic diseases. The government will meet the costs of treating them,” she said.
In line with this, she said, the scheme has given directives for insurance schemes to offer a Standard Benefit Package to its beneficiaries
