Afya Zetu :CHF a stepping stone to a better life to every Tanzanian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Director of Community Health Fund (CHF), Mr Rehan M(centre standing ) opening three days on January 21, 2015 in Dar es Salaam, to the leaders of the SACCOs of entrepreneurs when they organize a seminar aiming to give them educational on community health fund other are leaders of the SACCOS.

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By Damas Makangale, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The promise by the goverment to increase more people in the Community Health Fund (CHF) to help reduce the number of people having to draw money from their pockets to access health services in the country is somehow sucessful and in the right track thanks the giant scheme National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

  The then Tanzania Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Hussein Mwinyi pledged on 5th January 2013 during the discussion with a team of visiting Parliamentarians from the United Kingdom (UK) House of Commons who also took time to inspect UK Department For International Development (DFID) projects in the country.

  However, the minister said much as the fund had been introduced in the recent past, it had yet to pick up as intended. “In Tanzania there is growing commitment to the expansion of health insurance to achieve a ‘universal health system,’ whereby all those in need of medical care can access affordable services,” he said. 

Speaking to this reporter in an exclusive interview last week in Dar es Salaam, the Director of CHF, Mr Rehani Athumani said that the scheme is a voluntary body established by the Parliament act No.1 of 2001 and the scheme was first introduced as a pilot project in 1996 in Igunga district and was later rolled over to all other Councils. 

 CHF is a pre-payment, council based, scheme aimed at facilitating the community to access health care at an affordable premium that is determined by the community itself. He said that the membership size of the fund has increased from 468,611 by the end of June, 2011 to 474,760 by the end of June, 2012, which is equivalent to 1.3% annual growth and likewise the number of beneficiaries has increased from 2,498,920 to 2,502,794, equivalent to 0.2% annual growth rate. 

“We are now seeking to increase more people across the country as we have 5,602,374 people countrywide depending on the scheme for their health facilities,” he said Mr Athumani explained further that the scheme always worked shoulder to shoulder with municipalities and local goverment leaders as they have invited 139 municipalities in the collaboration across the country. 

The contribution that members of the scheme require to inject starts from Tsh.5,000 to Tsh.20,000 and allows them together with their beneficiaries to have acces of health facilities to Dispensaries, Local hospitals and Religious health centres.  

The NHIF benefits package consists of eleven services which include; Registration and Consultation Fees, Outpatient services, medicines, diagnostic, tests, inpatient services, surgical services, physiotherapy and rehabilitative services, optical services, dental services, retirees health services and medical and orthopedic appliances.  

The Director of CHF, Mr Athumani a soft - spoken person said initially the fund encountered various challenges mainly lack of awareness on the priniciples that underlie the concept of social health insurance. 

He said that in order to tackle that challenge, the fund embarked on intensive and extensive awareness creation to key stakeholders.  Stakeholders have gained a better understanding of the concept of social health insurance as evidenced by the increase of the base. 

To be recognised, the massive contribution of the NHIF in the health sector in Tanzania for the last fifteen years since its establishment it won the International Social Security Association (ISSA) Good Practice Award for Africa 2011 for improvements in its health insurance scheme.

  The ISSA Good Practice Award, which was presented at a ceremony in Arusha on 5th December, was presented to the NHIF for its strategic approach in improving its medical benefits’ package and health-care facilities, which has resulted into greater availability of medical services and an increase in number of the population which has access to health insurance in the country.  

An international jury which selected the winning entries also awarded three Certificates of Merit with special mention for good practices in social security to several other entries, including the National Social Insurance Fund of Cameroon.

 It was awarded for a project for processing and verifying the authenticity of civil status documents and certificates of school attendance. The National Social Insurance Institute of Cape Verde was awarded for its modernization project titled "new attitudes for new challenges," while the Rwanda Social Security Board received accolades for its strategy for extension of social security coverage to the informal sector.  

The International Social Security Association (ISSA) is the world's leading international organization bringing together national social security administrations and agencies. Commenting on the Rwanda Health Insurance and the contribution to the improvements of health facilities, Mr Athumani said that the Rwanda based scheme is one of the successful health service in the East African region.  

Rwanda is one of the most extensive community based health insurance schemes operated in Sub-Saharan Africa covering over 90 per cent of the population. Several studies, so far, have documented the success of the Mutuelle de Santé in addressing the two prime objectives of health insurance in a low- income setting, namely to increase access to health care and to reduce the burden of catastrophic health spending particularly for the poorer groups of society.  

It is a fact that the efforts that have been undertaken by the goverment of Tanzania through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) will in the long run see a tremendous improvement of health services to majority of Tanzanians living rural and urban areas.