Despite the push for National Health Insurance Fund uptake in the country a majority of Kenyans are still paying in cash to access healthcare services.
The NHIF limited coverage and low penetration of health insurance in the country has left Kenyan families spending billions from their pockets on health services raised through harambees, WhatsApp groups, M-Pesa, loans, the sale of land, and other assets.
This coming at a time that Kenyans are spending an average of Sh37,362 for each in-patient visit per year.
The newly released Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022 further shows that patients have to part with an average of Sh1,735 for each outpatient visit per month.
“Males spend twice as much as females on inpatient admissions. Males spend an average of Sh52,924 per year for inpatient admissions whereas females spend an average of Sh27,536 per year,” reads the new report released by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Nationally, one in four persons (26 percent) have some form of health insurance with the National Hospital Insurance Fund emerging as the most common type of health insurance.
Cash payments, followed by NHIF payments, are the most common means of payment for both inpatient and outpatient expenditures.
Household members paid by cash for inpatient expenditures an average of Sh13,621 per year and Sh9,330 through NHIF compared to Sh6,202 paid through private insurance.
Average monthly expenditure for outpatient visits is also slightly higher among males at Sh1,858 than Sh1,637 among females.
The survey further shows that outpatient health expenditure increases with an increase in age, with the oldest respondents reporting the highest outpatient health expenditure.
Children between the ages of 0–4 spend Sh898 compared to those above the age of 60 who spend Sh4,078.
Generally, persons in urban areas spend, on average, twice the amount spent by those in rural areas on inpatient.
In urban areas patients are spending Sh59,493 and Sh24,731 in rural areas respectively in inpatient, compared to Sh2,281 is spent in urban areas and Sh1,455 in rural areas in outpatient.
The number will likely increase with the government yet to change the contribution structure from an individual contributory scheme to a household contribution model which will include all Kenyans regardless of their employment status.
In what will turn out as a blow to the Kenyans and cost of healthcare generally the state announced a Sh5.6 billion funding cut to this years’ health budget.
In the 2023-24, the Health Ministry received an allocation of Sh141.2 billion down from Sh146.8 billion in the 2022-23 financial year.
