Vitality Health’s new plan in Tanzania: a game-changer for workplace wellness

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Strategis, a leading insurance provider with over 22 years of expertise in the Tanzanian market, joins forces with Vitality to offer employers four flexible coverage options tailored to meet diverse workforce needs. The new plans feature in-country, Africa Roaming, and worldwide (excluding the USA) healthcare coverage, alongside an innovative Malaria Benefit aimed at improving early detection and treatment.

“Our health insurance offering is unique because it focuses on wellbeing and is aimed at positively impacting people’s health outcomes while enhancing and protecting their lives,” explains Emma Knox, chief executive officer of Vitality Health International: Africa. “Our commitment extends beyond providing health insurance – we also reward healthy behaviours and support a healthier African continent overall."

Transforming health outcomes

Central to this innovative offering is Vitality Health International's shared-value model, a science-backed behaviour-change rewards programme, which independent research shows positively impacts health outcomes. Embedded in Vitality Health International’s health insurance model, the programme combines data analytics with rewards and incentives that directly encourage people to make healthier choices.

Says Knox, the shared-value approach reduces insurance risk, improves performance as an insurer, and enables employees, employers, and Vitality Health International to share in the value and benefits of healthy behaviour. This helps lower healthcare costs for employers and employees while decreasing claim risks for Vitality Health International.

To this end, employers can receive a cashback of up to 10% for encouraging their employees to improve their health. Additionally, the Vitality Health Fund—unlocked when members complete their Vitality Health Review—extends employees’ outpatient benefits by up to $100, based on their completion of Vitality health assessments and positive engagement with the Vitality programme.

Furthermore, employees can earn exciting weekly rewards for achieving their goals, or employees can choose to donate towards a life-changing vaccine. Employees are further incentivised with vouchers for achieving health goals with the new Vitality rewards partner, Vodacom Tanzania.

Tanzania's health challenges

Vitality Health International’s unique healthcare solutions underscore Vitality’s ongoing commitment to advancing health outcomes and promoting wellness across the continent particularly in Tanzania, which research shows faces a double burden of infectious and chronic diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Physical Activity 2022, 34% of deaths in Tanzania are due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Around 13% of all NCDs in Tanzania are caused by cardiovascular disease and WHO data shows that in 2019, the prevalence of hypertension in Tanzania was 33.2% among adults aged 30-79 years.

Tanzania is also one of the top 10 countries with the highest malaria prevalence and death rates. Nearly the entire population (93%) of Tanzania lives in malaria transmission areas.

According to the WHO’s World Malaria Report 2024, Tanzania had an estimated 8,555,000 malaria cases in 2023 and was one of four countries that accounted for just over half of all malaria deaths globally in the same year, contributing to 4.3% of the total. Between 2019 and 2023, the estimated number of malaria cases in Tanzania increased by 1.9 million, highlighting the growing urgency of addressing the issue.

This makes the new health insurance offering by Vitality Health International and Strategis Insurance a game changer, particularly given that the Vitality Malaria Benefit aligns perfectly with Vitality Health International’s partnership with Goodbye Malaria—an initiative driven by passionate African entrepreneurs focused on eliminating malaria within our lifetime.

Expanding health solutions

Since its launch in January 2022, Vitality Health International—owned by the multi-award-winning South African insurer Discovery—has steadily expanded its presence across the continent, offering health insurance that rewards healthy living to employer groups throughout Africa. In addition to Tanzania, the insurer has established a foothold in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Zambia, and exciting new products will be launched in the coming months, tailored to the specific needs of employers in each market.

This is not surprising given that, for over three decades, Discovery has pioneered the Vitality shared-value insurance model in South Africa, transforming the insurance landscape with a health insurance model that rewards healthy living. Discovery also has a global presence, today operating in more than 40 markets, impacting the lives of over 40 million people.

“Our health insurance model, with the Vitality programme at its core, is highly relevant given the changing healthcare needs of employees," says Knox. "We will continue to provide the incentives, tools, and rewards to help them lead healthier lives."