Public health insurance in Uganda still only a dream
Three months ago, Uganda planned to launch a compulsory public health insurance scheme, the first in the country. It didn't happen.
In an article in the Canadian Journal of Medicine, Rosebell Kagumire writes that the original plan was to provide cover to two million employed Ugandans, who comprise 6% of the population. This total included 300 000 government employees. Employees would have contributed about 4% of their income, which employers would match.
However, the National Social Health Insurance Scheme failed to get through parliament because of resistance from trade unions and worker's representatives, and from employers. Employers, who already contribute 10% of employee's gross income to the government pension scheme, were concerned about how the figure of 4% was reached and also about how the government were going to provide care, given the poor state of public health facilities.
Read the full article here http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/180/3/281.
