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Mkulo: Better health insurance services...
2008-09-22 10:26:12
By Austin Beyadi
The government has said that improvement in the provision of health insurance and other similar services would help it do away with the burden of spending more than 11 per cent of its national budget to meet health services.
The Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Mustafa Mkulo made the remarks in Dar es Salaam on Friday at the 12th annual Insurance Day conference which brought together stakeholders in the insurance sector.
He said that 11.1 per cent of the national budget this financial year, which was equivalent to 803.8bn/- had been set aside to meet health services, which was a burden the government had to bear.
Mkulo said the government was anxious to see a rapid expansion of insurance services that would take care of the hospitalisation and related expenses of a family member supported with pension products that would provide for a steady stream of income during the later part of ones life.
He said insurance providers should sensitise the public on the importance of the service so that a majority of income earning Tanzanians start planning for insurance covers at a young age.
He said that people of Tanzania as in many developing countries to a large extent still depended on a family structure for survival during sickness or old age.
President of Insurance Institute of Tanzania, Sanjay Suchak said that for the past five years insurance industry in the country has paid claims worth around 150bn/- for various eventualities.
He said it was unfair that individuals and their families who were in dire need of the insurance services were left out of such relief.
Mkulo said last year the insurance industry recorded an underwriting profit of 2.748bn/- compared to the previous years profit of 0.460bn/-.
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