Is Social Health Insurance Feasible in Uganda?

RESUMO

The Government of Uganda (GOU) desires to develop a social health insurance as one of the alternative mechanisms of sustainable health financing. But the GOU first wishes to find out whether this is feasible. Social Health Insurance (SHI) is defined as a health care financing scheme where specific population groups are mandated to enroll and pay a contribution to the SHI fund. In turn; enrolees are entitled to a set of health care benefits. SHI is currently being developed in many countries around the world. Typically; SHI focuses initially on civil servants and the formal sector labor force and their dependents; as this is a group which can be enrolled relatively easily for purposes of collections; is of middle to upper income; tends to be located in and around cities and towns to be able to access covered services; and has an emerging high demand for health care. As countries gain experience with SHI; they often expand coverage to include other sectors of the labor force; and eventiully the rest of the population