Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Afya Card

last updated Dec 12, 2011

Overview

Implementing organization: 
AAR
Implementation Partner(s): 
AAR, K-Rep bank
Legal Status: 
Private (for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2003
Stage: 
No longer active
Income Level of Target Population: 
20-60% (lower to lower-middle)

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Additional Source(s) of Funding: 
Membership/subscription fees, Revenue (e.g., interest on loans)
Funders: 
DFID

Scale

Number of Clients Served: 
5,726 as of December 2006
Summary: 

The Afya Card was a family-based health plan that provided basic healthcare to low-income families. The card offered both a comprehensive (in-patient and out-patient) and in-patient-only coverage for AAR’s facilities. About 80% of clients used the complementary Afya loan, offered by K-REP Bank and AAR Credit to finance their premiums.

Program goals/rationale: 

Disease and illness are the most important of all emergencies faced by poor households. However, the poor are excluded from services offered by quality health care providers because of affordability issues. The Afya Card sought to contribute towards quality, accessible and affordable health care and healthcare financing services for the low-income groups.

Key program components: 

Afya Card was a pilot project of the Africa Air Rescue (AAR) Health Services, K-Rep Bank and K-Rep Development Agency to implement an inpatient and outpatient health plan for low income individuals that cost as low as Sh6,000 (USD $71) per person per year.

The pilot test ran from January 2003 to April 2004 and was funded by the Department for International Development (DfID). The consortium combined the expertise of AAR on healthcare financing with that of K-Rep in working with low income households to develop the healthcare financing package for low income people in Nairobi. Clients joined the healthcare financing scheme by paying an annual membership fee, which gave them access to health services from AAR-accredited franchise health centres.

To assist low income clients in making the lump sum payment, K-Rep Bank and AAR Credit offered loans to finance these membership fees.

Program history: 

The project was able to develop and test an innovative, private sector-driven, commercially viable and replicable health financing scheme to reach "low-income" groups who had earlier been left out by reputable health insurance scheme providers. Products developed under the project were spun-off to AAR and K-Rep Bank at end of the pilot period. AAR has a product called Afya Card, a package which is specifically targeted at the greater population and middle class of the East African region.

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Building bridges AAR-K-rep doc.doc516.5 KB
FDCF Post Completion Report180907.doc237 KB
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