DPP Health insurance plan to cost K242bn

Government would have to spend a minimum of K2 billion annually if it is to fulfill Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) government dream of putting all public servants on health insurance scheme, Nation on Sunday has established.

However, the figure could swell to more than K242 billion annually in health insurance premium costs if the other DPP wish of putting all Malawians on a health insurance scheme materialises.

These are more conservative figures based on discounted and lowest health insurance premiums under Medical Aid Society of Malawi (Masm) for the 120 000 plus civil servants and 16 million Malawians, respectively.

DPP promised Malawians, among other things, that government will introduce a health insurance scheme for all public servants and that it will also be exploring possibilities of health insurance for all Malawians.

Putting Malawians on health insurance would mean people with different ailments visiting both public and private hospitals with government subsidising their medical fees through institutions that provide health insurance.

Malawi’s population stands at about 16 million while people in public service are around 120 000.

The K2 billion for civil servants or K242 billion bfor universal healthcare are on top of the current funding to the Ministry of Health.

Already, government is failing to fully fund the Ministry of Health, leading to shortage of staff and medical supplies that has seen poor delivery of public health services.

Meanwhile, the perpetually underfunded ministry says it is exploring alternative financing mechanism to meet electoral promises that the ruling DPP made to Malawians.

In an interview on Friday, Masm chief commercial officer Andrew Ngomwa said his organisation had given government a 30 percent discount on its premiums to put all public service workers on its health insurance scheme.

Ngomwa said Masm’s normal annual contributions at the current rates are K21 600 for econoplan, K62 400 for the executive scheme and K117 600 for VIPs.

“We gave government a 30 percent discount,” he said, adding that: “Our system has the capacity to enroll up to four million people. At the moment, we have about 120 000 lives on our books.”

Ministry of Health spokesperson Henry Chimbali said they have for the past few years been underfunded and that they are looking for alternative funding to meet the demands.

“We will be looking at various financing options that we have carefully studied, but are yet to get high-level approval and once we get a go-ahead, we will inform the nation about these options. In return, we expect to provide to Malawians the quality of health care that they have always wanted and desired,” he said.

Nation on Sunday has established that among other financing alternatives, the Ministry of Health will be asking patients to pay for services, which is contrary to the DPP promises. The party emphasised the possibility of free medical insurance for all Malawians.

Chimbali, who could not disclose the alternative financing sources they are considering, said implementation of health sector programmes is based on what is outlined in their 2011 to 2016 strategic plan.

He added that what President Peter Mutharika outlined during his inaugural speech and State of the Nation Address in Parliament was not different from the health sector goals.

But Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen) executive director Martha Kwataine said while government’s proposal sounds good and viable, there is need for benchmarking exercises to establish how other countries are doing it on health insurance.

Kwataine said government needs to work out issues of sustainability of such projects because “the Malawi health sector suffers a lot as it largely depends on donor funding”. She said up to 90 percent of the drug budget is donor-funded.

“Already, all our neighbouring countries do not offer free healthcare services for their citizens,” she said.

Kwataine said Treasury should take advantage of the time between now and September to engage Ministry of Health on what was feasible and the reality of translating their political ambitions into what is attainable.

“The technocrats within Ministry of Health and other stakeholders are the people behind the practicalities in reasonable time frames,” she observed.

Public health service in Malawi is free so that people access the services without discrimination based on income levels.

However, government has found it hard to finance the sector.