MINISTER for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Dorothy Gwajima has called on the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to expand its coverage following the government's plan to table the Bill for Universal Health Coverage for nationals in September, this year.

Launching the NHIF new board of directors and the fund's 20th anniversary, Dr Gwajima challenged NHIF officials and the ministry to first invest in public education to enlighten them on the importance of health insurance.

She said the procedures for establishing the universal health insurance are already on the ground and it is only waiting to be tabled in the House in the next sitting.

"Let's educate the public so that everyone could be accommodated in the new system, our focus must be on how to include everyone in this system," she noted.

She used the platform to acknowledge achievements made by the outgoing board of directors under the leadership of former Speaker of the National Assembly, Anne Makinda.

She said the new board needs to work hard to ensure all Tanzanians get quality health services through affordable health insurance. Elaborating, she told the meeting that the government has set a side 149bn/- to support the universal health insurance.

"This money will help our fellow Tanzanians who cannot afford health costs to get health services easily," she noted.

Equally, the minister said different health insurance packages introduced during the outgoing board's tenure have helped many people in non- formal sector to get health insurance and quality health services. Out of nearly 60 million Tanzanians, only 14 per cent have access to health insurance and only 8 percent are members of NHIF.

"It was not easy to bring changes in running NHIF, but the outgoing board played a big role in ensuring positive changes," she pointed out. In a tip, the minister urged NHIF to work closely with the Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology to in educating the public, especially through forms like mobile phones.

Dr Gwajima maintained that the 6th phase government is committed to improving provision of health services and it is on that background that President Samia Suluhu Hassan increased the age bracket of NHIF members' dependants from 18-21 years old.

However, Dr Gwajima directed the new board and the management to address fraud, corruption and negligence among workers. She explained that through negligence, NHIF lost some 6.1bn/- as a result of system failure within 18 months and 2.1bn/- in wrong deductions, adding that 9.1bn/- was lost in 28 hospitals in the same period.

Earlier the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Prof Abel Makubi applauded the outgoing board of directors, saying a lot of transformation was realized during their tenure.

"It is our hope that the new board shall steer forward the fund and improve on what has been realized" he noted.

The outgoing chairperson, Ms Makinda thanked the government for the trust on the board and cooperation. The Universal Health for all was among the items that dominated the discussion, when the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children tabled its budget for 2021/2022 fiscal year.

Deputy Minister Dr Godwin Mollel said the establishment of the Universal Health Coverage will also help to extend the scope of packages.

He told MPs that the government was working on the best modalities to see how they will increase the number of pharmacies, which have contract with National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) to cover the rural and remote areas

Copyright Tanzania Daily News. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source News Service English