Zimbabwe is proposing to introduce a national health insurance scheme that will be administered by the National Social Security Authority (NASSA).
This emerged at a Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) meeting held in Harare on Monday.
The TNF brings together government, business and labour and Monday’s meeting was the first formal meeting after a five-year hiatus.
The meeting resolved to fully implement the Kadoma declaration which was signed by the tripartite partners in September 2009 and was first discussed by the tripartite partners in the TNF in 2001 in an attempt to address macro-economic problems facing the country, including the country’s risk factors and their causes.
President Robert Mugabe officially launched the declaration in 2010 under the theme ‘Towards a Shared National Social Economic Vision’. But the declaration was in limbo owing to mistrust and friction among the social partners.
Labour Minister Priscah Mupfumira VOA Studio 7 that resuming the TNF is a step in the right direction for Zimbabwe.
Labour and business leaders have united in opposing the government’s move to introduce a national health insurance along the lines of the Affordable Care Act commonly referred to as Obamacare in USA.
Mupfumira tabled the proposal at the TNF and discussed ways of creating an enabling economic and social vision.
To discuss the importance of the TNF, Studio 7 spoke with secretary general Japhet Moyo of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and president John Mufukari of the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe.