Fighting disease amidst poverty

The body is made of flesh, such a delicate and aesthetically constructed soft tissue covering bones and housing vital internal organs. Embedded in it are fine constructed channels supplying blood to every corner of the body. 

This quaternity works like a perfectly synchronised machine, signaling a warning message to each other in time of danger, offering a helping hand to one another in time of need and rejoicing together like good old friends during joyous moment.

But there in darkness lurks an old nemesis called disease, waiting for the right moment to strike and disturb this synchronicity. It is a known fact since ancient times that in every one’s life time there is a moment when one has to face the old enemy “disease” and challenge it in a battle.

What is worse is that the enemy can come at any age of one’s life and at any time of the day, it doesn’t matter whether it is dark or in broad daylight, whether you have money or not, the enemy simply barge in without your consent.

It is with this uncertainty of timing many altars have been built and sacrifices made on top of them to please the almighty and in return to ask for the favor of never meeting the enemy, but oh my friend we all know well there is a time were our path will cross with the enemy’s path and hope we must, when that time comes let us be prepared to challenge the enemy and come out of the battle with jolly hearts. There are many aspects of preparation before facing the enemy but let us today talk about how a person can survive a disease episode without facing financial hardship.

It is estimated by World health Organisation (WHO) that every year 100 million people are pushed into poverty due to cost incurred when fighting disease.

Nevertheless it has been a common practice for households to spend every single shilling they had served in treatment when a member of household fall sick and sometime the household have to sell their assets in order to raise enough money to finance treatments of their loved one.

Let us face it we are all made of flesh and we can’t live as if we were of iron; we know there is a time when we will get sick and inevitably we will need medical attention by then. 

The important thing is when that time comes we should be able to finance our own treatment without pushing ourselves and our families into abyss of poverty.

Fortunately this can be achieved by having medical insurance beforehand (pre-payment mechanism). Reliance on cash payment at the time of accessing medical care has been a major reason responsible for pushing many into the pit of poverty, which can sometime be challenging to get out of it.  

Now you should be wondering how and where you can enroll in health insurance scheme, in Tanzania there are several options for you to choose. 

If you are employed with government then you probably are already enrolled in National health insurance scheme (NHIF), enrolment to this scheme is mandatory to all government employees, if you are government employee and you think you are not yet enrolled in the scheme or may be until now you don’t have an NHIF card it will be good idea to talk to your human resource manager and settle the matter.

Contrary to what most think, NHIF membership is not only open for government employees it is also open for other members of public.

Currently the scheme is actively enrolling staffs of religious denominations, private groups of entrepreneurships (those who are in SACCOS, VICOBA, registered entrepreneur like bodaboda drivers, mama/baba ntilie), workers in private companies, retirees, children who are under 18 years and students, if you belong to one of those groups talk to your leader about the procedures for enrollment or visit the nearby NHIF office for more clarification.  Beneficiaries of NHIF have access to outpatient and inpatient services to all facilities licensed by the fund in a country, by the end of June 2015 the number of accredited facilities stood to 6,185 which is equivalent to 55% of all health facilities available in a country

If you are in informal sector don’t think that you have been left out, Community health fund (CHF) provide health insurance mainly to rural residents who are in informal sector, the counterpart of CHF in urban area is called TIKA meaning Tiba kwa Kadi. 

Membership to these schemes is voluntary and open to any person who is willing to pay premium. Enrollment to the scheme is done in any health facility and fee is paid once per year, the amount can range from 5000Tsh to 40,000Tsh depending on the district you are living. 

In most cases benefit package comprises basic outpatient care in one health facility of your choice but in other districts the package can extend to involve inpatient care and possibility of referral to another facility. 

In Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions government in partnership with PharmAcess have lunched what is called improved community health Fund (ICHF) which enables members to benefit from accessing more healthcare facilities as well as more extensive benefit package.

You can also purchase health insurance policy from several private insurance companies, currently private companies which are actively working in Tanzania are AAR, Strategis, Jubilee Insurance, Resolution health and Metropolitan Insurance. 

Generally private companies offer more extensive benefit packages compared to government schemes with a tradeoff of higher price when purchasing a policy. 

You can find more information about the process of enrollment, price of premium and benefit packages by visiting their offices or their websites.

Advance in mobile technology also has given room for mobile companies like Tigo and Vodacom to have some form of micro-health insurance which provide benefit ranging from covering for consultation fees and admission fee. 

Talking about micro-health insurance there are also several social enterprises offering different affordable health insurance packages one of them is Micro Health Initiative (MHI) which actively works in Kilimanjaro region. 

Enrolling to these micro-health insurance schemes can provide some form of financial protection when you fight disease and somehow pull you away from slipping into the pit of poverty   

The benefit of having health insurance goes beyond the need of using it; just the idea that you are protected and ready to face the worse at any time is relieving and provides peace of mind and energy needed to go through the day.

Let us be prepared to face the known enemy and be ready when he strikes, let us not be reduced into beggars while we fight for our lives and let not our lives hang on the mercy of others.