Tanzania is finalising draft of a bill to make it mandatory for every person to be covered by health insurance services, a senior official said Tuesday.
Ummy Mwalimu, Tanzania's Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Children, and Elders said this in the country's capital Dodoma when speaking in the ongoing National Assembly sessions.
She said that as per the bill proposal, the Tanzanian government will also be able to provide free health insurance cards to elders to enable them to have access to quality health services.
The minister said that the bill draft was on the final stage and it will be tabled in the forthcoming Parliament to realiSe the proposal.
The minister reminded the public to take seriousness on proper feeding and conduct physical exercises daily to avoid increase in patients for none communicable diseases.
She highlighted that non-communicable diseases were on the rise in the country citing that unhealthy eating and lack of body as among causes of the diseases, Xinhua reported.
"It was high time now people should build the culture of having frequent body exercises to prevent avoidable health complications, mainly non-communicable diseases," the minister said when responding to a question an MP who wanted to know the government's plan on providing free medical services to the patients suffering from the non-epidemic disease.
In his question, the legislator claimed that a number of Tanzanians were suffering at home due to lack of funds or access to medical services in big hospitals, something which affects their daily activities and the country's manpower.
