The Contribution of National Health Insurance Fund towards Achieving Universal Health Coverage: A Case of Bugando medical center

Abstract

This study acknowledges that the NHIF has a significant role in providing access to quality health care services, reducing household health spending, and ensuring access to quality essential health care services, all of which anticipate universal health coverage. The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of the NHIF in obtaining universal health coverage. The study used a quantitative research approach, with Bugando Medical Centre serving as the study site and NHIF patients treated at the hospital serving as the study population. For sample selection, a simple random sampling procedure was applied, with 260 samples taken from the research population of 822 using Krejcie and Morgan (1970). The data was obtained using a closed-ended questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and ANOVA using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Version 23.0). According to the findings, the NHIF’s contribution to providing access to quality health care services, reducing household health spending, and ensuring access to quality essential health care services strongly predicts attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This study suggests that the NHIF helps to achieve universal health coverage; however, more work is needed to reduce household health expenditures and provide access to quality essential health care services. In order to have a sustainable pooling mechanism, this study strongly recommends that the NHIF cross-subsidize the poor and focus coverage of persons in the informal economy.

Keywords: Universal health coverage, access to health care services, minimization of household expenditure on health, access to essential medicines and vaccines

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 Received: March 16, 2022  Accepted: April 23, 2022  Published: April 30, 2022

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