Africa-Press – Lesotho. From as low as M185 per month, you can now access medical insurance to give you peace of mind on a rainy day, thanks to Metropolitan Lesotho. The Health4Me product which was launched last week, is targeted at the low to middle-income bands.
Speaking at the launch, Metropolitan Lesotho managing director, Mamello Phomane, said access to good quality and affordable healthcare has become a basic human right.
“As a country our healthcare challenges remain great, we still have the third-highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the world and malnutrition and stunting are constant challenges,” Phomane said.
“Access to health care remains an integral part of every person’s well-being.
She said the mainstream medical aid we currently have is still unaffordable for many people who are in the low to middle-income bands, and this often makes it very difficult to access good quality health care.
Phomane said the new product will allow workers to have group health insurance and gain greater access to medical resources. She said healthy employees tend to work more effectively and efficiently than employees who are ill.
She said depending on the industry, it can actually be more cost-effective in the long run to pay for employees’ health insurance rather than having to deal with the lost time and productivity resulting from their absence from the workplace.
“Over the years as we engaged with our strategic partners over their needs and how our insurance solutions could cater to them, it became clear that we needed to be able to innovate, create a flexible and affordable solution,” she said.
Phomane said the new scheme is designed to provide employees with improved access to quality, private healthcare with flexible add-on benefits. The general manager of the Health Department at Metropolitan, Sepinare Lenkoe, said more than 95 percent of Basotho depend on public health services that are not coping due to congestion.
Lenkoe said they have come up with something which will meet the needs of the people in Lesotho. Lenkoe said less than five percent of Basotho are currently on medical aid which is very low as compared to our neighbouring countries.
He said this new product has accommodated people, especially those who are earning very little money. Lenkoe said they thought about how they could come up with an affordable product without compromising the quality.
It allows the clients to have access to specialists and chronic medication, maternal benefits, accidental cover and emergency cover, hospital cash back benefit, and optional funeral cover.
Colonel Mohale, on behalf of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF), said they are the most vulnerable people since they are exposed to so many risks. Colonel Mohale said they deal with dangerous conditions such as Covid-19 since they are the ones to enforce regulations and restrictions for people.
He said they are happy that Metropolitan had met them halfway by providing affordable services to their people. “Most of our employees earn low salaries, with these fees I believe we will also afford the service,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Lefu Ralethoko said they realised the need for medical aid in their department. ACP Ralethoko said they are happy that Metropolitan had come up with a new affordable health product they can all afford.
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