BY MENGESHA AMARE
“I have no words to express my immense benefit secured out of the Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI), and I would like to advice people to join the scheme as promptly as possible in order to get their family treated from disorders at ease,” said Tsehay Menber whom this writer approached for comment at Jan Meda Health Station.
Nothing is better than protecting oneself from unexpected and highly incurring costs for medication. Yes, disorder, injury, severe damage and disability are spontaneous events that can occur anytime and harm people, and even claim lives.
There is a reliable remedy for this which is called health insurance in general and community based health insurance in particular. Basically, health insurance is a formal arrangement in which insured persons are protected from unexpected cost for medication and have opportunity to be provided with low utilization of modern health services.
Hence, it is well comprehended that the purpose of Health Insurance is therefore to help people pay for care without hardship and without the risk of being impoverished.
Tsehay also said a good understanding of health insurance leads to a greater indebtedness of the potential usefulness of such a scheme, and knowledge of the manner in which the scheme operates may make it easier for households to obtain benefits.
The Ethiopian Health Insurance Agency Director General, Frehiwot Abebe, said at a recent training that the media can play an irreplaceable role in raising public awareness at a larger scale about health insurance in general and that of community-based in particular.
Started operating in 13 woredas of different states as a pilot project in 2003, the scheme has now well accessed 743 woredas to provide helped members and their families with the insurance service and over 32 million citizens have been embraced under the scheme framework so far.
“The Agency is relentlessly working to make all citizens of the country beneficiary out of community-based health insurance in 2030 employing payroll based approach. To this end, it has devised easily accessible and well attainable mechanisms, especially if societal cooperation is ensured,” she added.
The interest of the public to join the health insurance is now well rising and this needs to be well eyed at to responsibly serve the general public.
According to Frehiwot, the Agency is working with the media and other concerned bodies to expand community-based health insurance and raise public awareness accordingly.
“All walks of life have to participate in the scheme through developing sense of belongingness and willingness to support one another; if we raise public awareness and heartily cooperate, we can make a real difference,” she added.
The Agency has been undertaking a multitude of activities to expand the program in 827 woredas to make 9 to 10 million households (over 45 million citizens) -beneficiary in 2013 E.C.
Senior Communication Expert with the Agency, Eyob Gelaye, on his part said that as health financing is a systematic collection, pooling of resources and purchasing of services involving mobilization of funds for health care, allocation of funds to the regions, is a key factor of health system functions in terms of equity, efficiency and quality.
He also said that a premium fee is paid to an organization offering health insurance and this contract guarantees coverage for approved health services and premiums are usually paid on annual or monthly basis as well as individuals pay the premium regardless of whether or not they use the health insurance.
Communication Advisor, Assefa Yirgalem, also said that the media plays a paramount role in portraying the low level of health insurance in Ethiopia through print, broadcast or social media to help the issue receive proper attention.
The system is, he said, significantly useful in helping citizens who cannot afford to cover their medical expenses but wish to get treatment and those who are suffering from dearth of resources due to unbearable medical costs.
He also said that serving the public is the prime responsibility of journalists and they have to live up to the professional ethics and genuinely serving the public. Hence, all the works of journalists have to center the general public and reported in a complete, informative and reliable as well as life changing manner.
The media has to show that diseases be they are communicable or non-communicable have claimed the lives of citizens especially that of the productive posterity. Since the CBHI is of paramount importance in helping people save from unexpected and huge expenses, the significance of supporting one another to get low income ones benefited from a fair medical service is unmentionable.
He also urged the media professionals to be ambassadors of the health insurance.
Gudeta Abebe, Members’ Registration and Contribution Directorate A/Director with the Agency on his part said, attitude is a state of mind that involves beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in certain ways. Besides, our attitude towards health or any other social interactions can be determined by various factors such as environment, experience and education.
He further said that there are steps for building positive attitude like being optimistic (positive thinker), avoiding complaints, associating oneself with happy people, reading inspiring stories etc.
He also said that membership is based on the willingness of the target households. The aim of such scheme is to reach out the unreached ones and low-income groups, especially those engaged in the informal sector, and increase access to health services.
Undeniably, CBHI schemes are becoming increasingly recognized as a potential strategy to achieve universal health coverage in developing countries. Utilization of health-care services has remained very low in Ethiopia despite great efforts to improve accessibility to modern health-care services for years.
Given the financial barriers of the poor households and lack of sustainable health-care financing mechanisms in the country has been recognized to be major factors, the country has implemented community-based health insurance in piloted regions of Ethiopia which aim at improving utilization of health-care services via well addressing financial barriers.
The Ethiopian Herald December 10/2020
