Title:
Community Health Fund Scheme in Tanzania: Exploration of its Challenges and Opportunities in Contribution towards Universal Health Coverage
Authors:
Winani, Stephen C
Year:
2015
PAGE:
x, 49
Language:
En
Subject:
Health and Poverty
Keywords:
Community health fund, Health financing, Universal health coverage, Tanzania
Abstract:
Background: Tanzania’s health Tax financing has not been possible due to the low collection of taxes, because a low tax base due to a large proportion of the informal sector in Tanzania economy and a poor tax collection system. The government decided to engage the community in both social and community health insurance. Objective: The general objective is to review relevance and experience of the Community Health Fund within the broader perspective of the Universal Health Coverage. Methods: The methodology of this thesis is literature review on published literatures on CHF in Tanzania, CBHI in other similar countries and policy and guidelines documents from WHO, UNDP or World Bank reports. Findings: There are a lot of challenges in the implementation of CHF in Tanzania, many can’t afford premiums, most people live distant from health facilities, there is no a mechanism to collect premiums during harvest, and health care is of low quality. In addition, there is no trust in management and schemes; there is no mix of contributions from other sources including government and even local government. There is no a mechanism to enhance pooling. Services of poor quality are purchased from government facilities. Payment is done regardless of the quality; there is no referral mechanism in place. Conclusion: Generally, in the implementation of the Community Health Fund there are a lot of challenges that hinder the success of the schemes in reaching intended objectives. In addition, the schemes do have a negligible amount of contribution towards health financing and universal health coverage. Recommendation: I recommend that, the government of Tanzania re-design the CHF scheme and learn from Ghana on how to strengthen CHF and merge the schemes; from Rwanda on how members can pay the contribution according to their ability to pay, and also on how to improve the management and quality of care in public facilities. Finally, improve the geographical distribution of the health facility in remote areas.
Organization:
KIT - Royal Tropical Institute
,
VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Institute:
KIT (Royal Tropical Institute) Health Unit
Country:
Tanzania, United Republic of
Region:
Eastern Africa
Training:
Master of Public Health / International Course in Health Development
Category:
Research
Right:
© 2015 Winani
Document type:
Thesis/dissertation
File:
ZIQZAchgMp_20161108103937136.pdf