The National Health Insurance Fund will from Monday conduct a weeklong roadshow in Nairobi.
The roadshows will be targeting the informal sector (Jua Kali) and are aimed to sensitise the target audience about NHIF, its products and services and highlight the importance of health insurance.
“The objective of the roadshow is to sensitise, get feedback and reduce the number of defaulters in the informal sector,” NHIF said.
A report by the fund released in January showed that 8.8 million Kenyans had defaulted on their monthly contributions by June 2022.
This reflects 43 per cent of the total NHIF members, signalling a huge number of Kenyans who are no longer benefiting from the fund.
According to NHIF data, the number of members in default status jumped from 5.03 million in 2021 to 8.8 million by June 2022.
Although membership grew to 15.4 million from 13.94 million, those identified as active stood at only 6.7 million.
“The informal sector has also faced financial challenges caused by the poor economic conditions thus making it difficult for members of this sector to make their voluntary contributions to the fund,” NHIF said in a health sector report made public by the Treasury.
Members of the informal sector pay voluntary contributions of Sh500 a month to the NHIF while those in the formal sector contribute between Sh150 and Sh1,700 every month, depending on the salary scale.
Registered members who have defaulted on the monthly premiums are usually locked out of utilising their insurance covers for hospital bills.
Defaulted premiums condemn members to out-of-pocket expenses to settle the bills, with NHIF requiring them to settle the arrears first.
