Community-based Health Insurance – PST06105 Health Financing
NTA Level 6 • Semester 1 • PST06105 Community-based Health Insurance Health Financing • Source Session/Topic 6 Full source-text version: all educational wording from the extracted learning source is retained; only presenter/tutor metadata and web-layout noise are removed, while formatting is improved for readability. PST 06105: HEALTH FINANCING Session 6: Community-based Health Insurance Learning Tasks At the end of this session students are expected to be able to: Define community-based health insurance Explain how community-based health insurance operates in the health sector Enumerate advantages and disadvantages community-based health insurance Activity: Brainstorming What is community-based health insurance? 3 Community-based Health Insurance (CHI) Community-based health insurance (CHI) is part of an overall health financing strategy in a number of developing countries are sometimes referred to as health insurances for the informal sector, micro–health insurances, mutual health organizations, or micro insurance schemes CHI is defined as a not-for-profit prepayment plans for health care controlled by community and have voluntary membership Community , using representatives, manages the collection of resources and purchase of health services CHIs were actively promoted by UNICEF for people in the informal sector in 1980-1990s through Bamako Initiative It is a voluntary and prepayment scheme where community pay a set premium to the scheme . Community-based Health Insurance (CHI) The premium is based on community rating (based on pooled risk of defined population) The prominent community-based health insurance in Tanzania is known as Community Health Fund (CHF), which currently operated by local governments within a local government There two forms of CHF in Tanzania: Ordinary CHF: Improved CHF Community-based Health Insurance Ordinary CHF has the following features: No separation between purchaser and providers of health services, that is, the Council Health Service Board represents both the interests of CHF members and health care providers (health facilities) Weak data management system Passive enrolment strategy based on health facilities Restricted benefit package with card applicable at the enrolled facility and rarely involving hospital services Passive to no community sensitization campaigns Identity card given to head of the household (only one card for the household) Community-based Health Insurance Improved CHF has the following features: Reorganized structure that displays the different roles of purchaser (CHF) and health care provider (health facilities) Reform of data management system by installation and use of an insurance management system with a central server with online and offline modes Active close‐to‐client strategy with village‐level enrolment officers Expanded range of services to include hospitalisation and portability of CHF cards within the region Active mobilization campaigns with social marketing strategies that involve both community‐based campaigns and mass media campaigns Each member of the household is given individual membership cards Activity: Brainstorming How does community-based health insurance operate? 8 Operation of Community-based Health Insurance Operation of Community-based Health Insurance CHI involves two parties: citizen and users of health services and providers of health services In CHI arrangement, specified group of people or households (e.g. within a local government ) pay premium to providers of public health services (.e.g. dispensaries, health centres , hospitals) before they fall sick Addition to premium paid, households receive a “matching grant” from the central government , which is equivalent to the premiums paid by the enrolled households in Tanzania In return, insured members of the community receive health services when they fall sick Providers of public health services collection, and use financial resources pay for medicines costs, laboratory tests, supply and medical material costs, entrance fee or consultation fees Additional details of CHF are provided in Hand out 1 Operation of Community-based Health Insurance T here are factors, reported by researchers that influence operation of CHF in Tanzania; these factors are reported in the following table 5.1 below. Activity: Small group discussion What are the advantages and disadvantages of Community-based health insurance? 12 Advantages of CHI Advantages (strengths) of CHI are as follows: Provide better access to health care for low-income people or the informal sector CHI do provide additional financial resources earmarked for health Provide some protection to their members Disadvantages of CHI CHI has limited ability to raise significant resources due to low overall income of the community Limited population coverage due to: people do not understand the need for health insurance , voluntary nature of schemes, and they do not trust the managers of the scheme Sustainability is questionable for most CHIs due to small size of the pool(population coverage ), which makes many community based health insurance schemes vulnerable to failure Voluntary community health insurances are liable to risks related to adverse selection(individuals are able to purchase insurance at rates that are below actuarially fair rates and cream skimming (seek to enroll only so called good risks and avoid enrolling customers whose profile suggests that they are unhealthy with chronic disease ) Key Points CHI is now promoted as an alternative financing in developing for raising financing resources for the health sector and for ensuring that people informal sector have access to health services CHI involve two main parties in health service: citizen and user of health services and an network of providers of the health service CHI has both advantages and disadvantages There are factors that constraint the performance and operation of CHI Evaluation What is community-based health insurance? List are the parties involved in CHI What are advantages and disadvantages of CHI? What are the factors that facilitate operation of CHF in Tanzania? Reference Ekman , B. (2004). Community-based health insurance in low-income countries: a systematic review of the evidence. Health policy and planning, 19(5), 249-270 Gottret , P. Schieber , G. (2006). Health financing revisited: a practioner’s guide. World Bank Green , A. (2007). An introduction to health planning for developing health systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press Kalolo , A., Gautier, L., Radermacher , R., Stoermer , M., Jahn , A., Meshack , M., & De Allegri , M. (2018). Implementation of the redesigned Community Health Fund in the Dodoma region of Tanzania: A qualitative study of views from rural communities . The International journal of health planning and