Government finalises drafting health insurance bill

Dodoma. The government yesterday revealed in parliament that it was finalising plans to draft a bill, which will ensure that all people have health insurance cover.

The bill, which is set to be tabled in the forthcoming parliament for debate and deliberation, was also meant to provide free health insurance cards to elders.

This was revealed by minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Children and Elderly Ummy Mwalimu during a question and answer session.

She was reacting to the supplementary question asked by the Tunduma lawmaker (Chadema), Mr Frank Mwakajoka, who wanted to know the government’s position in providing free medical services to the patients who were suffering from non-epidemic diseases.

“The government could not provide free medical services to every patient suffering from diseases like heart, cancer, diabetes, kidney, to mention but a few. However, when all citizen get their insurance cards, it will be a huge relief,” he said.

In his question, Mr Mwakajoka claimed that majority of Tanzanians were suffering at home due to lacking money to access treatment at big hospitals.

“This puts our manpower and economy at large at risk,” warned Mr Mwakajoka.

However, the minister said the government was committed to ensuring that every ‘Mwananchi’ enjoys health insurance and eventually achieve universal health coverage.

She reminded the public of the need to feed properly and take physical exercises daily to avoid non-communicable diseases.

Ms Mwalimu pointed out that non-communicable diseases were on the rise, blaming the rise on poor diet and lack of physical exercises.

“It is high time people changed their lifestyles if they want to avoid health complications,” she opined.

Her sentiments were echoed by the deputy speaker, Dr Tulia Ackson, calling on the government to consider Tanzanians with low income, especially, those in rural areas.

“My request to the government is to come up with a special system that will allow citizens with low income to afford health insurance services,” said Dr Tulia.