Kenyans to pay Ksh 17 per day for NHIF

Piece by: CHARLES MGHENYI

11 February 2022

Cabinet secretary for health Mutahi Kagwe has revealed that if a proposed system goes through, Kenyans will be able to pay for the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover via Mpesa.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Health Workforce Conference at Sarova Whitesands in Mombasa, Kagwe revealed that the idea is to have universal health care for all Kenyans.

Here is an excerpt of the interview with the Star's Charles Mgenyi.

What are these facets?

There are three aspects that we need to consider, that is affordable healthcare, access to health, and the quality or the standard of the services.

Affordable health means no matter what happens, one can afford to go and get treated. Today, we noticed it for the first time at Coast General Hospital. At the Cathlab, we did the first-ever stem cell in a government facility.

The cost was Sh400,000 and the patient was registered with NHIF. He walked in and walked out, having received the best treatment available anywhere in the world without paying anything. He walked in with sickness and walked out better. That is affordable healthcare.

Access to health means that even if health services are free, are the services available? There is no point in telling people they can get free treatment and there are no hospitals or equipment.

That is why we have built hospitals in Nairobi and across the country. It is why we are equipping the hospitals with ICU facilities and why we have over 7,000 Covid-19 isolation centers.

The last facet of UHC is the standard of health services that we need to maintain in the country. It is not the brick and mortar facilities.

We need to ensure we have the best and the most qualified staff. Whether a doctor, clinical officer or nurse, we have to make sure those people are properly trained, both in quality and quantity.

Have we made strides in achieving UHC, are we close to hitting the 100 percent rollout of this program?

We have not achieved a 100 percent rollout of UHC. It is very unlikely that we will achieve it. The concept of achieving it should be such that we do not have a discussion on whether we have achieved it or not.

We will only say we have achieved when it is pretty obvious that every Kenyan can get medical care as it is elsewhere in the world.

Waziri, is it mandatory for all Kenyans to be registered with the National Health Insurance Fund?

It is not mandatory, but it is mandatory for anybody who can afford it.

There are many ways of knowing you can afford it. If you are banking Sh20,000 per day from selling mitumba in Gikomba that does not mean you cannot pay Sh17 every day.

Why do you expect people to do a Harambee for you when you get sick and you have a chance to pay Sh17 per day for your own and family health insurance? Surely, you can afford Sh17 per day.

What is the government doing to ensure more Kenyans contribute to NHIF?

We are in discussions with mobile money service providers like Safaricom so that when you are doing your daily money transactions, they can deduct something from your transactions if you allow them.

If you allow them to deduct Sh17 every day from your daily transaction, you wouldn’t even notice it. The money is submitted to NHIF and by the time you realize it, your cover is in place.

That is the sort of thinking we must have and appreciate that taking care of oneself is your responsibility.

Where are you with this plan?

We have done a lot of work with them, we are in the negotiation stage. In the next couple of days, we will be announcing this particular scheme to the Kenyan public.

Because we have started this scheme, you will be hearing a lot of things happening, as we move on. It is a journey, we are journeying in the legislative area, healthcare, and infrastructure

Do you have a target of how many people should be registered with NHIF by the end of the year?

We do have a target. Ideally, the government wants to get as many people as possible, if they can come out tomorrow, the better.

We want to cover everybody. We do not want that in two years people still get sick and cannot access UHC. Every year, we want to register at least a million people, who cannot pay for themselves.