What passing of National Health Insurance Bill will mean

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KAMPALA - The draft National Health Insurance Bill has been sent to Cabinet, the health ministry has said.

If it becomes law, it is hoped that the cost of medical care will substantially come down in a country where most people pay out of pocket for medical care, which analysts say is not sustainable.

They cite scenarios during the COVID-19 pandemic when many families had to sell property to care for loved ones in hospitals while some had their dead 'detained' over accumulated unpaid bills.

The bill had previously been passed by Parliament but was returned to the House after President Yoweri Museveni declined to assent to it because he was not comfortable with some clauses, including the private sector component.

As such, effort had to be made to redraft it. 

"The bill is now ready and we have submitted it to the Cabinet secretariat," Diana Atwine, the health ministry's permanent secretary, said this week.

"We expect that once it is scheduled and discussed at Cabinet level, we will not have any hesitancy because this is the same bill that was discussed earlier. Even when it goes to Parliament, it should be able to sail through."

She said this offers hope for the country because public health facilities are not everywhere, which has meant that most Ugandans have to consume expensive services from private health facilities.

"We want to appeal to all stakeholders to support this initiative because it is the only answer to the question of the high expenses of medical care in this country.

"Even in the richest counties like America, which are highly developed, and they have a lot of money, they all contribute to medical care through a national insurance scheme. 

"Therefore, we believe that risk pulling through the national health insurance scheme, where people contribute to the healthcare basket, is the only way we are going to reduce the risk by spreading it (risk) around," said Atwine.