Knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of health managers towards the proposed social health insurance scheme in Uganda
Abstract
The government of Uganda planned to start Social Health Insurance (SHI) in July 2007, beginning with the formal employment sector, with a view to attain universal coverage in 15 years. Health workers in general and managers in particular, have a crucial role to play in the successful design and implementation of the SHI. This study, conducted in June 2007, meant to assess the knowledge and attitudes of Ugandan healthcare managers about SHI. In so doing, it assessed their readiness to play their role in the implementation of the policy and, generally, gave a clue about the readiness of the country to start the process. The situation does not seem to have changed much in 2009. A cross-sectional survey of health managers in 24 key public, private-not-for-profit and private hospitals, and 8 districts was done.
The managers were found to be well aware of the proposed policy but ignorant of its context. They had very high hopes of a large benefit package and yet expected to contribute very little. They felt they had been marginalized in the process of designing the proposed scheme and their roles were not clear. There was no formal training in what they were expected to do once the scheme started. They also had doubts about the integrity of the proposed fund collection and disbursement mechanism.
The paper recommended formal training of managers on the policy and its context, their roles, and involving them in the design of the scheme. It also supports postponement of the scheme until key infrastructure and capacity building has taken place.
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
The quality and use of maternal health care in Oyam district, Uganda:
Birungi, Sixtus; Odaga, John; Lochoro, John Peter; Santini, Stefano; Owiny, Vincent; De Vivo, Emmanuela (Uganda Martyrs University Press, 2009-04-01)Despite the availability of technically sound approaches, maternal mortality and other reproductive health problems persist in Uganda and other developing countries. Utilisation of maternal health services remains very ... -
The Quality and Use of Maternal Health Care in Oyam District, Uganda: A baseline survey for an intervention
Birungi, Sixtus; Odaga, John; Santini, Stefano (Department of Health Sciences of Uganda Martyrs University, 2015-11-15)Despite the availability of technically sound approaches, maternal mortality and other reproductive health problems persist in Uganda and other developing countries. Utilisation of maternal health services remains very ... -
A Review of Human Resource for Health in Uganda
Matsiko, Charles Wycliffe; Kiwanuka, Julie (Uganda Martyrs University, Department of Health Sciences, 2003-12)The importance of human resources in health systems needs not to be over-emphasised. Expenditure on health workers forms a significant proportion of total health expenditure in many countries. In order to effectively ...