The Zimbabwean cabinet has approved a framework under the proposed National Health Insurance Scheme that will result in people in rural communities using livestock for health cover, a Government official has said, according to The Dairy Site
The scheme will also target those not formally employed, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Prisca Mupfumira, annonced on 17 April, as reported by Zimbabwe's The Herald. Addressing the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare 2017 strategic review workshop, Minister Mupfumira said the move would spread access to health care to rural, mining and farming communities.
"As Government, it is our responsibility to ensure that the vulnerable, the less privileged and those not formally employed have access to medical services," she said.
Minister Mupfumira said the process had already been activated with the approval of Cabinet, while subsequent processes of drafting the Bill before taking it to Parliament by the end of the year were underway.
The scheme will include a voluntary component targeting the informally employed, who will make their contributions at prescribed intervals. Minister Mupfumira said the scheme had to be affordable to the masses, adding that most people in rural, mining and agriculture communities had no access to health services. Medical aid societies cover only those who are in formal employment, which translates to a few.
Minister Mupfumira revealed that the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with their South African counterparts to improve cooperation in the management of migrant workers.
