The Director General of Mutuelle de santé (Mutual Health Insurance) in the Ministry of Health, Andrew Makaka, says that the 2012 health insurance programme is track despite claims that the programme has registered only 15% of the registration process.

To date More than 15 percent of the population had already paid their contribution but according to Makaka, this is a progressive process but stated still a challenge of people who are not aware of which categories they belong.

Mutuelle subscribers are assigned to one of the three categories that include; the well-to-do who pay Rwf 7,000, relatively modest families pay Rwf 3,000 and the vulnerable whose contributions are covered by the government at a cost of Rwf 2,000 per individual annually.

The government subsidises mutual health insurance programme with US$ 4 million annually while the Global Fund contributes US$ 5million. Contributions by beneficiaries add up to US$ 30 million.

Rwanda is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa in which 85% of the population participates in mutual insurance programmes for their health coverage, according to the World Health Organization.

Most of the resident have however confessed the fact  they have not taken up the responsibility of registering for the mutual health insurance. One resident Alice Uwase says “ I have been lazy at registering for health insurance because I have not taken it seriously though I once in a while get sick, Uwase said “apparently the health insurance is very vital in cases of accidents and its very helpful in such cases”