- On October 19, President Ruto signed four Universal Health Coverage Bills into law.
- They include the Primary Health Care Bill, Facility Improvement Financing Bill, Digital Health Bill and the Social Health Insurance Bill.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
Health sector stakeholders have lauded the move by President William Ruto to assent four crucial Health Bills into law.
The stakeholders have said the move by the President is a great milestone towards realising affordable and accessible healthcare to all Kenyans but urged for their effective implementation.
The stakeholders were speaking during a Network of African Parliamentary Committees of Health (NEAPACOH) - Kenya chapter meeting with the members of the Parliamentary Health Committee in Nairobi.
At the meeting, the parliamentarians shared progress on the road to achieving commitments made in February during the NEAPACOH meeting in Kampala.
During the February meeting, Kenya committed to increase her budget for the health sector funding from Sh122 billion to Sh154 billion, institute a Facility Improvement Fund (FIF) law and provide seed funds for HIV, TB and Reproductive Health products.
Head of the Kenya Country Office at the African Institute of Development Policy (AFIDEP) Rose Oronje said Kenya has good policies in place but implementation has always been a challenge.
“Citizens are looking forward to leaders implementing these laws to change their lives,” Oronje said.
On October 19, President Ruto signed four Universal Health Coverage Bills into law.
They include the Primary Health Care Bill, Facility Improvement Financing Bill, Digital Health Bill and the Social Health Insurance Bill.
The four are meant to address issues such as low health insurance coverage and burdensome out-of-pocket costs.
Peter Ngure lauded the move by the Kenya government on its move and called for the acceleration of access to sexual and reproductive health information and services for young people.
Ngure is the Programme Manager of the USAID-funded Building Capacity for Integrated Family Planning and Reproductive Health and Population, Environment and Development (PED) Action (BUILD) project.
BUILD Project is a consortium of five partner organisations led by the AFIDEP.
Others are the Leadership for Environment and Development in Southern and Eastern Africa (LEAD SEA), PATH Foundation Philippines Inc (PFPI), FHI360 and Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).
The project is being implemented in four hub countries namely, Kenya, Malawi, Ivory Coast and the Philippines.
National Assembly Health Committee chairperson Robert Pukose assured participants that the Parliament is committed to ensuring that Kenya has the right legal frameworks to bolster family planning services in the country.
This, he said, will bolster the provision of family planning services in the country as the right path towards realising universal health coverage.
“We are expecting family planning commodity financing by 2026 will also be funded from our domestic resources, this is because donor funding has gone down over time,” Pukose said.
Pukose said as members of the national assembly, they are committed to enabling a political environment that will see the government increasing domestic financing for sexual reproductive health and family planning services commodities.