The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Religious institutions through the Inter-Medical Bureau Coalition have urged Parliament to include community health insurance schemes in the National Health Insurance Scheme Bill, 2019.
The Inter-Medical Bureau Coalition is made up of 4 faith-based bureaus- Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau, Uganda Muslim Medical Bureau, Uganda Orthodox Medical Bureau and the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau.
The coalition made the appeal on Wednesday when some of its members appeared before the health committee to submit views on the Bill.
The Bill among others seeks to create a scheme to ensure all residents in Uganda can access and afford quality health care services. The scheme is expected to pool resources from the rich and healthy people in formal and informal sector to subsidize medical treatment for the poor, street children, persons with disabilities and the elderly.
Dr Sam Orach, Executive Secretary of Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau, says that Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau and Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau have particularly been promoting Community Health Insurance Initiatives in some of their health facilities.
He says close to 40 percent of the health facilities for the two bureaus run community health insurance schemes in Mid-North, Central, Western and South Western regions of Uganda.
These community insurance schemes currently have 104,412 members across the country.
Orach, however, explains that the four medical bureaus collectively coordinate 680 multi-tier health facilities of which 66 are hospitals and health centres.
Orach says that the schemes should be recognized in the law, set their premiums and how much people, especially low-income earners should pay to access health services.
Orach says that if the community health insurance schemes are excluded from the new law, it will difficult to regulate them and yet they have existed for the last 20 years and have done a good job.
Orach says that community health insurance schemes can collect contributions from the communities including self-employed individuals to ease collection through already existing systems or even form channels if they are provided for in the law.
In 2018, Uganda Health Federation, an umbrella body for private healthcare providers noted that only 150,000 people out of the population of over 36 million Ugandans are health insured.
Some of these are insured as employees in companies, are involuntary schemes while some contribute certain amounts annually to community health insurance schemes so as to access services such as maternity, outpatient, inpatient, eye care and dental services but most do not cover critical illnesses, certain surgeries among others.
The health committee chairperson, Dr Michael Bukenya says that members of the committee will look through the proposals and recommend to be considered in the Bill.
*******
URN
