Africa-Press – Lesotho. Metropolitan Lesotho, on Thursday last week, launched a new health insurance package designed for employees. Called Health4Me, the product will allow employer groups to offer cost-effective healthcare
cover to their employees earning less than M10 000 per month. Metropolitan Lesotho Managing Director Mamello Phomane, speaking at the launch, said the
socioeconomic environment within which people live in today has become such that access to good quality and affordable healthcare has become a basic human
right. She added that the healthcare challenges remain stressful as the country still has the third highest record of prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the world
and malnutrition and stunting are constant challenges. “Add a pandemic to our health care system and an already strained system becomes overwhelmed. I
mention these challenges not to be morose or melancholy, but because I want to highlight just how incredibly important this launch is today,” she said.
She further said access to health care remains an integral part of every person’s well-being and mainstream medical aid 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. She said most people who can afford medical aid do so because they are part of an employer subsidized health
insurance scheme that employers require as a condition of employment. Phomane indicated that Group Health Insurance is the answer for all employers everywhere because there is strength and scale in numbers and when employees
have group health insurance, they gain greater access to medical resources. “Consequently, workers can rest assured that they can rely on their health care plan in case
of a catastrophic illness or emergency, this is peace of mind that a few have,” she said. The Managing Director continued to say that for any business or organization providing
employees with the peace of mind that comes from health insurance, it means reduced sick days and absences and therefore more productive and focused workers.
Over the years as Metropolitan Lesotho engaged with their strategic partners over their needs and how their insurance solutions could cater to them, it became clear that
they needed to be able to innovate, create a flexible and affordable solution. As further revealed by Phomane, what became essential was to cater to their
partners affordability requirements but also provide them with the ability to access quality health care while giving them flexibility and Health4Me is their
answer to this challenge. She said they have created a solution that is designed to provide employees with improved access to quality, private healthcare with flexible add-on benefits.
Metropolitan Lesotho General Manager Health Sepinare Lenkoe said in Lesotho less than 5% of Basotho are currently on medical aid and high costs of the health insurance is
the biggest barrier to the growth of the industry. “If you are in the private health provision in Lesotho, one of the biggest challenges that you face is,
will people afford my services,” he said. He further said the ability to pay a robust health coverage via medical aid is key to the growth of private healthcare in Lesotho.
Lenkoe said the solution that Health4Me has brought is that the cover starts from the little amount, allowing client to choose policies they can afford.
Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Representative Colonel Nkhetheleng Mohale said the type of work they do, which is dealing with criminals, rescue operations and enforcing
the law within the society makes them vulnerable to hazard. He added that they appreciate this product introduced by Metropolitan Lesotho as it is going to cover them in their field of work.
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