Health Insurance for older persons in the offing

By Darias Wasajja

KAMPALA: Government is considering introducing a dedicated health insurance scheme for older persons to reduce the financial burden of medical care as Uganda’s ageing population continues to grow.

This comes as the country today commemorates the International Day for Older Persons with calls for improved healthcare for the country’s senior citizens.

State Minister for Elderly Affairs Jacqueline Mbabazi says the government is now exploring ways of ensuring older persons can access affordable healthcare, noting that a significant share of the financial support they receive is often spent on treatment and other medical needs.

The initiative comes as Uganda’s population of older persons accounts for 5 percent of the total population and is projected to reach more than 2.6m by the end of 2026, up from the 2.3m recorded in the 2024 National Population and Housing Census.

Today’s commemoration of the International Day for older persons draws attention to the wider population depending on care and social support.

Government figures indicate that about 5.9 million people are orphans or dependants, while approximately 7.5 million people are involved in caring for older persons.

According to Mbabazi, the proposed health insurance scheme is intended to ease the burden on these care givers.

“But we’ve been talking to insurance companies to give an exception and our limitation is funds because the government cannot pay for this, does not have the funds to pay for that. But when we increase the sales to 35,000, we may be able to take off 5,000 per month so that we can use it to put in place an insurance scheme for these people. Health is so important because we have found out that, the $25,000 we give them, which is payable every three months, every quarter, not less than 30% of it is used for medical care,” Ms Mbabazi said.

The International Day of Older Persons national commemorations, are to be held virtually at State House under the theme “Ageing with Dignity: Strengthening Care and Support Systems.”

Meanwhile, while presenting a statement on the Commemoration of International Day of Older Persons to parliament yesterday, Ms Mbabzi revealed that the government had put on hold its plans to extend the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) program to older persons aged 65, due to a funding shortfall of Shs252 billion.

She noted that although the Cabinet approved the progressive reduction of the programme’s eligibility age from 80 to 65 years to enable older persons to receive regular cash transfers, the expansion cannot take effect without the required funding.

Under SAGE, the government provides eligible older persons with a monthly cash grant of Shs25,000 per person, a figure that the officials are proposing to raise to Shs 35,000 to support dignified living and improve their income security.

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