KNCU Health Plan

 Jatropha Project New KNCU (1984) LTD Wakulima Shop KNCU Sugar Project
 

Access to primary healthcare is one of the major challenges faced by communities in rural areas of Tanzania. Most facilities lack the staff, equipment or services required to provide an adequate standard of treatment.

 KNCU, in partnership with the PharmAccess Foundation (PharmAccess), Micro Ensure, MEMS, EnviroCare, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) and ACCORD have launched a health plan scheme serving members of Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) in the Kilimanjaro area of North Tanzania.

KNCU is a union of coffee growers comprising of 92 cooperatives with around 1,000 families per group. Before the project is introduced to Primary Society,

 KNCU Health Plan
each cooperative votes on whether or not it should take out the health plan. If more than 50% of the people’s votes say yes, the whole group is enrolled into the health plan and the premium is deducted from the proceeds of their coffee sales. Each member pays an annual premium of Tsh. 12,000 (approximately $8), while a further payment of Tsh. 28,500 (approximately $19) is funded by PharmAccess.

The KNCU Health Plan is a capitated scheme where each healthcare provider is paid in advance for a projected number of patients. It will cost Tshs. 1000 per person per month and no limit in terms of the number with which an eligible member could enroll his dependants into the health insurance scheme. This implies that the KNCU member and their families are able to access the best health quality services at a very affordable price which is less than a dollar per month per person.
KNCU - Tanzania Health Plan

The health scheme is a pilot project and for the initial stage, two (2) Primary societies of Marangu East and Mrimbo uuwo have been chosen in the first phase of project implementation. Currently the project has expanded to three more Cooperative Societies.

However the project will expand to other next 68 Primary Societies based on the set criterion for the Project inclusion with which the expansion strategy for the project will rely on. The expansion strategy of the Program will go concurrently with the geopolitical set up of the KNCU where as the 4 clusters of Regions which are Hai, Siha, Moshi rural and Rombo will be included in the KNCU Health program. The KNCU Health Plan is a capitated scheme for primary care; with a

team of stakeholders their main role is to ensure high quality care from the panelled Healthcare Providers. Payments to Healthcare Providers are monitored by analyzing claims data on the Amara system to ensure providers have sufficient funds to meet patient needs.

Future Plans
Since its launch in April 2011, the KNCU plan has been rolled out across one of the 68 cooperatives. As the project reaches scale having completed the initial pilot phases it is expected that the KNCU Health Plan will cover over 250,000 lives by the end of 2013.