Majani Insurance Brokers (MIB) has partnered with Britam to launch an affordable outpatient medical insurance for smallholder tea farmers across the country.
The cover is an enhancement of the Kinga Ya Mkulima cover provided in partnership with Britam.
According to MIB General Manager, Pauline Mwangi, the cover offers additional financial protection to farmers and reduces out-of-pocket expenditure on medical bills. The Kinga ya Mkulima cover already has an inpatient package.
“Farmers have indicated that while the inpatient cover has been beneficial, they also want to be covered when they are seeking outpatient medical services or when they need to take medication at home,” said Ms. Mwangi.
In partnership with Britam, MIB has developed an enhanced package that caters to both inpatient and outpatient needs of tea farmers. The enhanced cover will offer more benefits to farmers, at an additional premium, enabling them to access over-the-counter medication among other outpatient benefits.
Ms Mwangi said that Majani will be working with Greenland Fedha, a microfinance outfit that, like MIB, is a subsidiary of the Kenya Tea Development Agency Ltd (KTDA) to provide credit to farmers to meet any financing gaps to access the insurance cover.
Britam Director of Emerging Consumers, Saurabh Sharma, observed that with such flexible insurance solutions to protect farmers during adverse health events, they can focus their energy and resources on their core business of producing high-quality tea for local and international markets.
“We understand that out-of-pocket medical expenses can put a strain on any family and this expanded cover will ensure access to necessary medical care without financial worries, promoting a healthier and more productive population,” said Sharma.
The cover is available to farmers in 71 tea factories run by KTDA. The inpatient cover offered by MIB and Britam has been highly successful as it has over 200,000 members insuring over 700,000 lives and has settled more than 150,000 claims.
The new outpatient enhancement is expected to scale up this product further to reach over one million lives.
The cover is also available to non-tea farmers, but unlike tea farmers who have the unique flexibility of paying their premiums in monthly instalments, non-tea farmers have to pay upfront when joining the scheme.
BY KBC NEWS