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There is a clear indication that older people need special treatment and care, as they
grow older. Again, since most of the elderly are poor, they cannot access health
services due to institutional barriers. Different health policies and initiatives geared
toward promoting good health, older people are still failing to access quality health
care in the country. Again, available literature has not addressed the issue of insurance
and the elderly. Thus the aim of this study was to analyze the contribution of health
insurance on the access and utilization of health care services by the elderly in Ilemela
District.
The study targeted the population of elderly people aged 60 years and above, health
practitioners and administrators. A total of 278 respondents were involved in the study
and they were selected by using simple random, convenient, and purposive sampling
techniques. Data were collected through focus group discussions (FGD), questionnaires, and interviews. The collected data were analyzed by both qualitative and quantitative
techniques, in which qualitative data were subjected to content analysis while
quantitative data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to
produce percentages and frequencies, then exported to excel to produce tables and
figures. The findings show that health insurance influenced elderly access and
utilization of health care services. However, the usefulness of health insurance is objected
by lack of awareness, shortage of skilled personnel, long waiting time, shortage of
medicine, unharmonized government self-managed insurance fund, limited insurance
schemes in rural areas, and unclear health insurance service packages.
In conclusion, the study recommends increasing awareness of elderly people
regarding health insurance and its usefulness particularly among the elderly living in
the rural areas. When increasing insurance coverage, strategic efforts should also be
made to improve the training and employment of health workers with gerontological
skills, availability of essential medicine in order to encourage more people to join the
insurance scheme |
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