Abstract—The paper analyses the impact of households’
membership in micro health insurance plans on the protection
against catastrophic health spending, in the episodes of illness.
The analysis considers the groups of poor and non-poor members
of micro health insurance schemes and non-members in both
urban and rural areas in Tanzania.
Matching estimator method was used to analyse the effect of
membership in the micro health insurance on the protection
against catastrophic health spending, in the episodes of illness
among the members of micro health insurance scheme and nonmembers
for the different income groups. Data used in the
analysis involved those on the 10,300 households involved in
Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey of 2011.
The estimation results revealed that insurance schemes enabled
households to get protection against catastrophic health
spending, in the episodes of illness to members of insurance
schemes compared to non-members. Thus, it is recommended
that households be encouraged to enroll in the micro health
insurance schemes. The insurance scheme also needs to be close
to the would be customers. This will also contribute to poverty
reduction in the country as well.