As competition for insurance products hits fever pitch, insurance companies are looking for ways of attracting more customers and also retaining those they have.
For Minet, the mobile phone has provided them the avenue to tap into the thousands of teachers across the country. Teachers are in every corner of the country, with some places being difficult to access due to bad infrastructure. The schools are not only in far flung areas, reach to towns is limited and they are also sparsely populated.
Despite these realities, access to medical cover is essential, for yourself as well as family who are listed as beneficiaries. A medical cover helps anyone better focus on their trade, removing any worries of emergencies or health complications.
In Kenya, health care is expensive. It is also difficult to access quality health care, because of poor infrastructure. Among priorities that Counties are putting in place is building hospitals, clinics, employing more staff – both doctors, nurses and support staff as well as equipment.
In some hospitals, it is only through devolution that they have been able to conduct life changing operations. But as infrastructure is built, sickness does not recognize this deficiency. It also doesn’t recognize a person’s inability to cater for these life changing services, whether at the basic level or complex level.
High mortality rates in Kenya are directly contributed by poor infrastructure. For instance, according to UNICEF, of every 1,000 babies born in Kenya, 23 die before the end of their first month, a startling static that makes a mockery of Kenya as a low middle income economy.
In the Minet’s cover for teachers and their family members, over 530 healthcare facilities across Kenya have been contracted with an estimated reach of one million Kenyans.
Kenya also has an inadequacy of teachers. Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has argued that they are strained and is looking to reduce the teacher shortage of 104,821 in the country. Today, there are 312,306 primary and secondary school teachers, who are all enrolled on the cover.
The partnership of two critical areas of society, joining hands to make life better is not only laudable, but also exemplifies how society can deal with its challenges, through shared approaches.
Teachers can access a wide range of services including dental, optical, maternity and specialized treatment abroad by enrolling through a USSD code. By *340# on either Safaricom or Airtel lines, they can be directed on the locations of any medical facility across the country.
Sickness can strike any time of day, hence by allowing for a simple access through the mobile, teachers and their dependents can be better guarded against vagaries of life.
