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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2023

Open Access 01-12-2023 | Research

Healthcare workers´ experiences and perceptions of the provision of health insurance benefits to the elderly in rural Tanzania: an explorative qualitative study

Authors: Paul Joseph Amani, Miguel San Sebastian, Anna-Karin Hurtig, Angwara Denis Kiwara, Isabel Goicolea

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2023

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Abstract

Background

Healthcare workers play an important part in the delivery of health insurance benefits, and their role in ensuring service quality and availability, access, and good management practice for insured clients is crucial. Tanzania started a government-based health insurance scheme in the 1990s. However, no studies have specifically looked at the experience of healthcare professionals in the delivery of health insurance services in the country. This study aimed to explore healthcare workers’ experiences and perceptions of the provision of health insurance benefits for the elderly in rural Tanzania.

Methods

An exploratory qualitative study was conducted in the rural districts of Igunga and Nzega, western-central Tanzania. Eight interviews were carried out with healthcare workers who had at least three years of working experience and were involved in the provision of healthcare services to the elderly or had a certain responsibility with the administration of health insurance. The interviews were guided by a set of questions related to their experiences and perceptions of health insurance and its usefulness, benefit packages, payment mechanisms, utilisation, and availability of services. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data.

Results

Three categories were developed that describe healthcare workers´ experiences and perceptions of delivering the benefits of health insurance for the elderly living in rural Tanzania. Healthcare workers perceived health insurance as an important mechanism to increase healthcare access for elderly people. However, alongside the provision of insurance benefits, several challenges coexisted, such as a shortage of human resources and medical supplies as well as operational issues related to delays in funding reimbursement.

Conclusion

While health insurance was considered an important mechanism to facilitate access to care among rural elderly, several challenges that impede its purpose were mentioned by the participants. Based on these, an increase in the healthcare workforce and availability of medical supplies at the health-centre level together with expansion of services coverage of the Community Health Fund and improvement of reimbursement procedures are recommended to achieve a well-functioning health insurance scheme.
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Metadata
Title
Healthcare workers´ experiences and perceptions of the provision of health insurance benefits to the elderly in rural Tanzania: an explorative qualitative study
Authors
Paul Joseph Amani
Miguel San Sebastian
Anna-Karin Hurtig
Angwara Denis Kiwara
Isabel Goicolea
Publication date
01-12-2023
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2023
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15297-4

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