Perceptions and Demand for Health Insurance services offered under National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) Scheme among Civil Servants in Tanzania

This paper examines the perceptions and demand for health insurance services offered under NHIF scheme in Tanzania. It examines the perceptions of civil servants, the factors influencing perceptions and their implications to the demand for health insurance services. The study used a cross sectional survey design which allowed collection of data in a particular place at once and within a short time. A sample of 250 civil servants from two strata (secondary school teachers and National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) employees constituting 117 and 133 respectively) was obtained using stratified random sampling technique. The study used descriptive and econometric techniques to analyse the data. The results indicate that age, marital status and education have an influence on the perceptions of the quality of health services. Furthermore, sex, education and distance were found to influence the perceptions on the availability of health services. For the demand for health insurance services, age, sex, education, waiting time and perception on the quality of health services were found to be significant. Moreover, the findings show that most of the respondents (75.6 percent) reported poor health services offered under NHIF scheme. This means majority of the civil servants in Tanzania receive relatively poor health services at the accredited health facilities. The study recommends a review of the Act 8 of 1999 that established NHIF scheme in order to make civil servants enjoy the freedom of choosing the health insurance scheme of their test. It is imperative for the scheme to improve the quality of health services rendered in order to encourage new entrants and preserve customers’ royalty. The services offered should be not only inviting and attractive but also should meet the customers’ needs. To achieve this, the scheme should allow all accredited health facilities with the capacity (in terms of both material and human resources) to offer the services to NHIF customers. Keywords: Health Insurance Services, civil servants, quality of health services, employees’ perceptions, demand for health insurance servic