Jubilee to provide affordable health cover through M-Pesa

Dar es Salaam.  Jubilee Insurance Company has designed a new product bimaAfya powered by Vodacom M-Pesa for enabling millions of Tanzanians to get affordable health insurance.

The health insurance product known as bimaAfya is an affordable and comprehensive medical cover that will provide individuals and family premium cover at a low price range while giving the users access to over 150 quality service hospitals, according to a statement released by the Jubilee Insurance yesterday.

“It will cater for in-patient and out-patient and maternity on cashless basis. bimaAFYA is designed to cater for  monthly, tri-monthly, quarterly and yearly packs at affordable premium prices, to enable the average Tanzanian to pick an affordable pack that falls within his or her  income,” reads part of the statement.

“Like other African countries, Tanzania has for a long time been accused of lacking a culture of adopting insurance covers to cater for the needs of her population. However, we believe that the real reason is the high cost of medical insurance packages currently in the market which favour the corporate staff.  There is a large percentage of the population who still pay for their medical expenses out of their pocket.”

Therefore, bimaAFYA, will enable many Tanzanians to enroll in a medical insurance service equivalent to what M-Pesa is to financial services,” said Vodacom Head of Marketing and Communications Kelvin Twissa in a statement.