Report shows 9% increase community health insurance enrolment

A new report by the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) indicates that more people are enrolling in community health insurance schemes.

According to the report, between July 2022 and June 2023 alone, in the two schemes under UPMB, there was “an 8.9 percent increase in membership from 94,047 to 102,461.”

Speaking in an interview during the launch of the UPMB Annual Performance Report for July 2022 - June 2023 on Thursday, Dr Hillary Alima, the Bureau’s head of health systems strengthening and membership management said many people are beginning to see the importance of health insurance.

“Some of the communities that we work with don’t have a lot of money. But they have learnt that when we pull our resources we are covered. They are not afraid of falling sick, they can prevent illness but when they need to go to the facility they are covered. That level of assurance, mentally, is helpful,” Dr Alima said.

The report indicates that UPMB currently manages “two schemes namely [UPMB] staff scheme and Kingdom Development Organ (KIDO) that are in their second year of operation.” According to information from the Church of Uganda website, under KIDO, the annual membership fee is Shs50,000.

Dr Tonny Tumwesigye, the UPMB executive director said: “Considering that 80 percent of our medical facilities are rural and serving poor and vulnerable communities in this country, people they serve don’t have money, even to meet basic treatment costs.”

“Also we know that out-of-pocket expenditure is prohibitive and many cannot access care because of this. The innovation around community health financing is coming to try to help our communities so that they don’t feel the effect of catastrophic medical costs and also fail to access care,” he added.

The UPMB report comes six months after the Uganda Insurance Association launched a report which highlighted the disparity in access to medical insurance with only 500,000 Ugandans insured out of the country’s 45 million people.

Jonan Kisakye, the Uganda Insurance Association chief executive officer while presenting the initial findings noted that it represents only 1 percent of the country’s total population.

The report shows medical insurance remains one of the biggest contributors to the growth of insurance with a contribution of Shs85b gross written premiums in the first quarter of 2023 from 8 industry players, and Shs19b in monthly claims made to service providers in 2022.

The UPMB report also comes amid information from the Health Ministry that plans to have the national health insurance scheme are being expedited.