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UCHD2025

Recommendations for Parliament’s Consideration: A Right to Health Analysis of Uganda’s National Health Insurance Scheme Bill

In the following brief, we provide a right to health analysis of the Government of Uganda’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Bill No. 27 of 2019.

We analyse the content of this bill according to the binding and authoritative standards of the right to health in international human rights law in order to highlight the extent to which the bill as drafted might assist or fall short in realizing this right.

We also consider where Ugandan constitutional rights and law may support these analyses. In addition, we consider the extent to which this Bill accords with the guiding principles of universal health coverage (UHC) under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

We are also aware that the global COVID-19 pandemic poses tremendous challenges for Ugandan health care settings and for the ability of initiatives like the current NHIS Bill to successfully launch. Accordingly, we consider the implications of a Ugandan COVID-19 epidemic for the NHIS initiative as planned.

 

Parliamentary Policy Brief: A Right to Health Analysis of Uganda’s National Health Insurance Scheme Bill

This Parliamentary Policy Brief provides a right to health analysis of the Government of Uganda’s proposed National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Bill No. 27 of 2019. The brief is based on an analysis of the provisions of the bill and measures these against the binding and authoritative standards of the right to health in international human rights law.
The brief also considers Uganda’s constitutional obligations and the extent to which this bill responds to these obligations. In light of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the tremendous challenges it poses for the Ugandan health care system, the brief makes recommendations on how the NHIS could respond to these challenges.