The Tanzanian healthcare system is financed from several different sources but principally through taxes and donor funding. Several social health insurance schemes exist that provide alternative health financing options, these schemes currently cover around 12% of the population. The formal sector is served by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF public sector) and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF private sector), while the informal sector is covered by Community Health Funds (CHFs). CHFs are district-based health insurance schemes providing affordable healthcare to people living in rural areas.
Approach
The programme supports the implementation of innovative approaches that focus on sensitizing and enrolling informal sector workers into CHFs. The most successful approach has been to access potential members through existing social and economic groups, i.e. group enrolment. By engaging with employers willing to contribute to the premium a broader section of the population can be covered with health insurance. Companies that adhere to national insurance schemes strengthen the overall healthcare system in Tanzania by at the same time showing corporate social responsibility and preventing high healthcare spending of people working informally for them.
Another approach implemented in partnership with NHIF (funded by KfW) aims at improving the access of poor pregnant women and their families to healthcare of good quality though enrolment into NHIF/CHFs.
Lessons learnt by TGPSH in supporting health facilities with claiming reimbursements from NHIF are a valuable asset when supporting interventions to strengthen claiming of CHF reimbursement.
By the end of 2010, a total of 88 groups with approximately 30,000 people had become members of CHFs in Lindi and Tanga regions and currently access healthcare services without facing substantial finacial expenses.
In selected districts, programme interventions helped to substantially increase enrolment to nearly 20% of the population in the most successful districts, compared to a national average of around 6%.
