At least 3000 households in Machakos county have enrolled in the universal health coverage programme, governor Alfred Mutua has said.
The program set to be launched in the county by President Uhuru Kenyatta on December 1, is continuing to list more users to enable them access affordable healthcare in all public hospitals.
“We are going on with our door to door registration that will see at least all households registered, I call upon my people in Machakos to take advantage and register,” Mutua said.
The registration exercise is targetting market days and other days when crowds normally gather.
The governor was speaking at the Machakos Level Five Hospital on Friday where he banned the use of plastic basins in Machakos hospitals.
“I have banned the use of any kind of plastic basins in Machakos subcounty hospitals because necessary facilities have been set up to ensure smooth provision of services to Wananchi,” Mutua said.
He praised President Uhuru for trying to make the UHC a reality.
The governor said county hospitals should no-longer experience sharing of beds among patients as enough facilities have been provided.
“I however remain uncompromising on issues like sharing of bed, I am confident that our hospitals are capable of managing and giving patients a comfortable place to stay,” he said.
Universal Health Coverage is among President Kenyatta’s big four agenda on which he is banking to leave a mark on Kenya at the end of his term in 2022.
Treasury had allocated Sh44.6 billion towards Universal Health Coverage in the financial year 2018/19 as part of Jubilee administrations’ Big Four pillars of development.
A chunk of the health budget, Sh13.7 billion went towards free maternal health care and leasing of medical equipment.
Treasury CS Henry Rotich said the government will roll out UHC to cater for all households in the country by 2022.
This is with a view to guarantee affordable healthcare and involves the reconfiguring the National Health Insurance Fund and reforming the governance of private insurance companies.
“The president has already launched the secondary school health insurance coverage for all students in a bid to ease the financial burden of their parents,” Rotich said.
The national government is launching pilot NHIF programs in four counties namely Kisumu, Nyeri, Isiolo, and Machakos at Sh2.5 billion.
The pilot projects will deal with the finding out on the capacity of NHIF as well as improve infrastructure before rolling out to all counties.
Neighbouring counties like Makueni are working to meet goal by making the Makueni NHIF cards for their people.