Tanzania: Jubilee, Vodacom Partner in Health Insurance

VODACOM Head of Marketing & Communications, Mr Kelvin Twissa, clarifies procedures to purchase health insurance services via M-Pesa during the launch of a product known as bimaAFYA to the Deputy Commissioner of Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA), Mr Juma Makame in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Looking on is Jubilee Insurance Company Tanzania CEO, Mr George Alande. 

AT last the insurance sector in partnership with Vodacom Tanzania has made access to health services easily affordable to many people in the low-income bracket.

This follows a health cover launched by Jubilee Insurance Company Tanzania, a leading Insurance provider in East Africa, powered by Vodacom's M-PESA.

The product known as bimaAFYA is an affordable and comprehensive medical cover that will provide individuals and family premium cover at low price range while giving the users access to over 150 hospitals.

The insured will get inpatient, out-patient and maternity services in the hospitals. bimaAFYA is designed to cater for monthly, tri-monthly, quarterly and yearly packs at affordable premium prices.

"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 pocket," said Mr Kelvin Twissa, Vodacom Head of Marketing and Communications.

"bimaAFYA, will therefore enable many Tanzanians to enrol in a medical insurance service equivalent to what M-PESA is to the financial services," added Mr Twissa.

The Jubilee Insurance company of Tanzania CEO, Mr George Alande, noted that statistics indicate that only 18 per cent of the Tanzanian population have health insurance.

He said those covered were mainly employer based medical insurance covers because only a few individuals could afford current prices.

According to the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) in 2013, medical insurance premium compared to the total premium for insurance market was only 19 per cent of the total short term insurance covers sold.

"We need to increase this by covering all the Tanzanians who are able to pay the premiums charged under bimaAFYA product," he said.

Source:Tanzania Daily News