Rwanda to Use Mobile Technology to Boost Health Insurance Subscription

Subscription to community-based health insurance (CBHI) scheme, Mutuelle de Santé, is getting better as Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) introduces yet another avenue through which subscribers can pay their annual premiums through mobile stacking, officials have said.

RSSB announced, Tuesday, that they have entered a partnership with MobiCash, a mobile solution, that subscribers to Mutuelle de Santé will start using to pay their premiums.

This shift to mobile application system of payment, stakeholders say, will be a huge relief to subscribers.

According to Jonathan Gatera, the director-general of RSSB, MobiCash has a growing network of agents, which will facilitate seamless subscription.

Gatera said MobiCash has about 700 agents spread across the country; they work with 348 SACCOs (savings and credit), 18 post office facilities and all cyber cafes.

"We definitely recognise the fact that this new process of paying insurance premiums will ease the way we do our bookkeeping and it will obviously give people more and easy options of paying their premiums," Gatera said.

Gatera is optimistic that mobile subscription would be an effective way for insurance managers to track or identify whoever paid their premiums and under which social stratification (Ubudehe) category they belong to.

"Once someone has paid through this technology, their premiums will be reflected on our bank accounts; without necessity having money go through several collection agencies for it to get to our account. This is safer and better, for it even allows us to produce or update their insurance accounts and cards on time," he said.

Positive trends

Latest figures from RSSB indicate that insurance subscriptions for the Financial Year 2016/17 are up to 84.2 per cent, two months to the closure of the subscription timeline. However, this is a positive trend compared to 2015/16, which closed when the subscription was at 81.6 per cent.

Mutuelle de Santé is slowly recovering from a managerial hitch it suffered a few years ago, which led to a free-fall in subscription from members of the public.

The Government's decision to transfer the universal health insurance to RSSB has seen steady recovery, with officials now looking forward to hit the dream target of 100 per cent Rwandans with medical insurance, either under Mutuelle or any other cover.

Premiums in Mutuelle have also increased by 3 per cent from an estimated 81 per cent in 2015/16. In the Financial Year 2014/15, just 75 per cent of Rwandans subscribed to Mutuelle de Santé.

Dr Solange Hakiba, the director-general of benefits at RSSB, recently revealed that an additional Rwf7 billion worth of premiums have been added to the insurance scheme this year.

"Looking at where we are now, we are hopeful that by July, about 100 per cent of people will have subscribed to Mutuelle. And we want to keep it at that level going forward," Hakiba said.

Mutuelle premiums are paid depending on individual household's Ubudehe category (social stratification), and people from households in category one are considered indigents and their fees are paid by the government, at Rwf2,000 per person.

Members of households in categories two and three pay Rwf3,000 a year while those in category 4, about 0.5 per cent of the country's population, pay Rwf7,000 per family member.

Mutuelle de Santé is the most common health insurance for Rwandans, covering at least 9.6 million people, especially those living in rural areas with meagre income.

Despite being the most affordable and inclusive medical insurance, the scheme has in the recent past faced criticism from some subscribers who say it is ineffective in terms of the medical bills they cover.

Besides that, the scheme faced managerial challenges until it was moved to Rwanda Social Security Board.

Reports suggest that some of the subscribers are yet to receive their cards, just two months to the closure of the fiscal year, although officials have promised serious reforms going forward.

Hakiba admitted that there could be a few gaps but remained upbeat about the future of the scheme.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs launched a new campaign aimed at increasing the number of subscribers to the community-based health insurance scheme.

The campaign will run in all the 30 districts with several events aimed at mobilising the population on the benefits of health insurance.

"Now our responsibility is to ensure that every beneficiary of Mutuelle is registered, easily and on time to make sure that RSSB does their work easily," said Emile Kinuma, the chief executive of MobiCash.

SOURCE:THE NEW TIMES