June 2019: Week 4

BRIEFING TO THE MEDIA ON CABINET DECISIONS TAKEN DURING THE CABINET MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 24TH JUNE, 2019

Cabinet sat on Monday June 24th 2019 at State House Entebbe, and;

  1. Approved the National Health Insurance Scheme Bill, 2019. The following are the Objectives of the Bill:
  • To facilitate the provision of accessible, affordable acceptable and quality healthcare services to citizens irrespective of their age, economic, health and social status;
  • To develop health insurance as a complementary mechanism of healthcare financing and ensure efficiency in healthcare services;
  • To ensure that residents have access to quality healthcare services which is equitable and affordable;
  • To regulate the cost of healthcare services for the beneficiaries and ensure equitable distribution of costs among the different income groups;
  • To maintain high standard of healthcare delivery services under the scheme;
  • To improve and harness private sector participation in the provision of healthcare services. The scheme will be implemented in an integrated approach through social, private community based health insurance schemes;
  • To mobilize funds to subsidize the cost of provision of healthcare services to the population and the indigents in particular; and
  • To promote social protection by protecting households from catastrophic health expenditures (impoverishing payments incurred when they access health services).

 

  1. Approved the National Payment Systems Bill, 2019. The overall objective of the Bill is to ensure safe and efficient payment system in Uganda and the expected benefits of the proposed National Payment Systems law include:
  • Prevention of fraud in the entire payments system in Uganda;
  • Reducing the cost of doing business;
  • Reducing systemic risk to prevent financial system collapse;
  • Prevention of data theft and misuse which often lead to painful disclosures, adverse publicity and fines;
  • Prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing; and
  • To foster competition and prevent monopolistic practices and challenges when innovations grow into complex systems and become too complicated to regulate.