NSSF Social Health Insurance Benefit (SHIB) and Health Care Services: Accessibility and Availability in Tanzania

Abstract

This study is about “Social Health Insurance and accessibility of health care services through National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Health Insurance service in Kinondoni Municipality. The focus of this study was on the ease of accessing health services using the NSSF health insurance, and the beneficiaries’ awareness level since people knew about NHIF and ICHF only. The objective of the study is to examine the accessibility of Social Health Insurance Benefits on health care service to people at Kinondoni Municipality. The study used a qualitative research approach to gather and analyze data from informants. In-depth interview was used to capture information from the key informants; observation was used to supplement and understand information gathered from the perspective group studied. This study used conventional theory to signify that any additional health care that consumers purchased through insurance coverage was not worth the real cost of producing it. The results indicated that Health Insurance users have failed to use it due to its accessibility and ignorance of community members and insufficient funds released by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to cover all the services required by their customers. This paper recommends that it is important to maintain the quality of healthcare services that NSSF receives from its customers. Also, NSSF should be accessible and reliable to all its customers.