• We’ve developed a plan of UHC scale-up. It ought to have begun this week but delayed because of logistical challenges, Amoth said.
• However, the government will pay NHIF premiums for about one million poor families.
Image: PSCU
The scaled-up Universal Health Coverage could be launched next week.
The government launched the pilot UHC on December 13, 2018, but the national rollout planned last year was put off due to Covid-19.
Acting director-general of Health Patrick Amoth said the new-look UHC will be rolled out next week and will focus more on prevention.
“We’ve developed a plan of UHC scale-up. It ought to have begun this week but delayed because of logistical challenges,” he told journalists.
“The entire plan, which will involve screening, promotive and preventive healthcare, will be launched from Thursday next week in Nakuru county. So when we launch all those services will be available,” he said during a media briefing on Thursday afternoon.
It is not clear if President Uhuru Kenyatta will attend the launch.
The new format will be different from the one tested during the pilot in Kisumu, Nyeri, Machakos and Isiolo for Sh3.17 billion.
Under the current plan, Kenyans will not enjoy entirely free services in public health facilities, at least not at the beginning.
However, the government will pay NHIF premiums for about one million poor families.
The registration of these poor families was launched by President Kenyatta on October 31, 2020.
Later, the government is expected to introduce legislation to ensure those who want to utilise UHC’s benefits package pay at least Sh500 monthly premium to NHIF.
This premium will cover one nuclear family, being at most two parents and children under 18 years. Dependents can also be covered through their parents up to 24 years if they are in school, or lifetime if they are severely disabled.
This mixed social health insurance model is becoming popular around the world and last year, Nigeria passed a Bill to make health insurance mandatory for all citizens.
The Kenyan ministry has already drawn the package of health services payers will benefit from.
“The package covers outpatient and inpatient services, communicable and non-communicable disease management, maternity, dialysis, radiology, mental health, minor and major surgery, substance abuse rehabilitation, emergency services and cancer treatment among others,” Amoth said recently.
In the pilot, beneficiaries did not pay anything to NHIF as their premiums were paid for by the government.
The NHIF Reforms Panel had recommended a government-funded scheme similar to the one in Britain where the state allocates funds directly to NHIF to cover about 30 million Kenyans.
The panel, headed by veteran insurer James Wambugu, said the Sh500 monthly contribution was unworkable.
The team noted that the default rate is already high in that scheme and only 35 per cent of registered members consistently pay Sh500 every month.
Currently, only about 18 per cent of Kenyans are insured through NHIF.
Wambugu said the Sh50 billion that had been allocated to UHC in the 2018-19 budget was enough to cover all uninsured Kenyans for one year.