HealthPartners receives $8M grant to expand its work to improve health care access in low income countries

Organization to work with Kenyan government on sustainable health insurance model

April 5, 2024 – MINNEAPOLIS — HealthPartners has received a five-year, $8 million dollar grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to enable the government of Kenya to adopt innovations that increase access to care and improve health outcomes for Kenyans.

The new venture in Kenya involves setting up government systems so they can develop agreements with community health cooperatives.

“The challenge is reaching the informal sector—often self-employed workers like housekeepers, secondhand clothes dealers, and wage workers who are not registered with a formal enterprise—with health care. Their income is not documented and often not regular, making insurance payment difficult and leaving them vulnerable to catastrophic health concerns,” said Pahoua Hoffman, senior vice president of government and community relations. “Having sustainable systems is so important to getting people the preventative health care they need.”

HealthPartners will be serving as technical advisors working in partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Health. The organization’s proposal to Kenyan leaders helped them recognize that since 63 percent of Kenyans earn income through cooperatives, cooperative partnerships present an opportunity for the government to reach the informal sector with health insurance.

“We live in a global community, and it’s exciting to share what we’ve learned to increase access to health care for all people,” said HealthPartners President and CEO Andrea Walsh. “Our ultimate goal to provide tools and support so local stakeholders can develop sustainable partnerships with each other.”

In Uganda, HealthPartners introduced a health cooperative (member owned) business model and then helped the government set up policies to regulate it. After years of capacity building, the model is locally sustainable, with local leaders serving poor rural populations. HealthPartners has planted seeds to improve health systems in Uganda for more than 20 years. The partnerships in Uganda will continue even as the primary focus will be in Kenya.

Twenty HealthPartners employees in Uganda have registered as a member-owned business to carry on this important health cooperative development work. HealthPartners is in the process of hiring staff in Kenya. Locally, the international development department is made up of five staff members.