The Ministry of Health (Minisante) has called on all the key players (patients and medical services) to respect the law as reports indicate that some hospitals and health centres scorn Mutuelles de Santé (health insurance) card bearers.

Mutuelle de Sante is a government initiated community health insurance scheme put in place to facilitate Rwandans access health services at cheaper costs.

The Minister of Health, Dr Jean Damascène Ntawukuriryayo said Wednesday that there are some medical facilities that had not previously been catered for under the scheme which have now been included, citing an example of the provision of prostheses for people with broken limbs.

The development comes after the organic law establishing the scheme was amended in March, to ensure that the service is extended to many.

He, however, pointed out that there are some diseases that are too expensive to handle, not only for Mutuelle, but for other medical insurance schemes as well.

Minisante is negotiating with the Ministry of Finance to introduce a guarantee fund for complications such as heart problems. 

"We will find a way of making it possible for people to be treated for even complicated diseases under the service. We will do all that is possible, even if it means other medical insurances contributing,” he explained.

He said that there are many incentives to the poor in that every person can have basics of life. He cited example the provision of mosquito nets for pregnant women, and children.

"But the media should help Rwandese to better understand their problems so as to develop themselves and the country,” said the minister.

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