In 2019, Zambia introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as a healthcare financing strategy to increase universal access to health care services and ensure financial risk protection. The NHI Management Authority is exploring accrediting the private for profit sector to be part of the NHIS and complement the public sector. This study explores and examines the perceptions and experiences of for-profit private providers regarding their inclusion in the NHIS. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with owners or management officers of purposively sampled private health care providers in Lusaka, Zambia (n = 22) between May and June 2020. The findings highlight low awareness of the NHIS among private for profit providers and a need to better understand the NHI. The providers also had concerns on aspects such as payments which can be considered as inputs to inform consensual agreements between the NHI Management Authority and health providers when seeking to leverage the private health sector.
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