- The President took time to put a case for the UHC, explaining how the programme will work.
- Ruto said no Kenyan will be turned away from hospitals for lack of money.
Image: PSC
President William Ruto has detailed how his radical Universal Health Care will work, saying no Kenyans will be turned away from hospitals.
The President said the UHC programme, which is anchored on three laws enacted on Thursday, will provide a framework to ringfence medical funds.
Ruto said every Kenyan will be covered by a special social insurance fund card that they will present for treatment whenever visiting health facilities.
"Each Kenyan will have a social insurance card, either paying by yourself or being paid for by the government,'" he said.
The President said while every Kenyan will be paying for the card, the poor ones will be catered for by the government.
"If the limit is reached then the chronic illness fund will kick in so that no Kenyan will be turned away," Ruto said.
Ruto said that in all the level 1, 2 and 3 facilities, all Kenyans will get free medical services.
"All the medical care will be paid by the government through the primary health fund,'' he said.
In the dispensaries and health centres, the President said, all Kenyans will be involved in running and managing their facilities.
"You will have the mandate to address issues of lack of drugs and report to us so that Kenyans can get access to medical care near their homes,'' he said.
"Currently Kenyans are trekking long distances because their local facilities have no drugs and staff."
The President said every health facility will have a ringfenced budget that will not be reallocated.
"The money allocated to each facility will not be reallocated, the church leaders, development partners, civil society, residents and administrators will be part of the management so that we deal with corruption," he said.
On emergency and chronic illness, he said every Kenyan will be treated in every hospital without any questions or need to make prior payments.
On Thursday, President Ruto signed the Universal Health Care Bills, which are set to support the improvement of the Universal Health Coverage plan.
The Bills are the Social Health Insurance Bill, Digital Health Bill, Primary Healthcare Bill, and the Facility Improvement Financing Bill, which were passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The Digital Health Bill aims to promote telemedicine and digitise health services by ending written transactions.
The Primary Healthcare Bill aims to strengthen preventive health services by co-opting the 100,000 community health promoters commissioned by the President recently.
The Social Health Insurance Bill abolishes the National Health Insurance Fund and creates three new funds: a Primary Health Care Fund, a Social Health Insurance Fund and a Chronic Illness and Emergency Fund.
The Facility Improvement Financing Bill will restrict funds raised in public health facilities so that those funds are not put to other uses outside of health.