Author: BERNARD LUGONGO
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government has added an additional 71 types of drugs into the list of essential medicines being covered by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
The move comes in response to complaints from public members who were forced to dig deeper into their pockets to buy those drugs after doctor’s prescriptions.
“Now the NHIF has added 71 types of drugs in its package of health benefits, and they will start being used immediately,” Deputy Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Godwin Mollel said.
The resolution was made after a joint meeting held in Morogoro on Wednesday between NHIF and Medical Stores Department (MSD).
On the other hand, the government has warned all hospitals against cheating in submitting bills to NHIF on their services to the Fund’s members.
The meeting, which aimed at addressing challenges facing the two institutions, involved senior officials from the two government entities.
In his statement to the media, Dr Mollel said he has directed NHIF to submit to the ministry changes of its package of benefits to members and immediately start offering them.
The Deputy Minister further instructed identification of areas of cooperation between NHIF and MSD so that the duo can bring efficiency in services they deliver to the people.
He went on directing NHIF to introduce and implement strategies for enabling more Tanzanians join the Fund in order to realize the government’s intention to provide better health services to all Tanzanians.
The Deputy Minister further said NHIF has to ensure that it speeds up implementation of identification and bringing closer to people specialist services, starting with zonal hospitals.
On other hand, he also directed MSD management to ensure that there was adequate supply of drugs and medical devices at affordable prices by purchasing them directly from manufacturers.
Dr Mollel explained that the government has continued putting in place strategies for improving availability of drugs and better health services to the citizens.
That was why the government increased budget allocation for medicines from 30bn/- in 2015 to 270bn/- currently.
The government has also been improving infrastructure and building new ones like dispensaries and district hospitals.
