Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has faulted the increase National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) monthly contributions to 2.75 per cent, terming it as another graft loophole.
According to Senator Onyonka, NHIF contributions have always encouraged money squandering and Kenyans do not benefit from them.
Speaking on Citizen TV’s Daybreak show on Tuesday, the legislator opined that the countless number of scams linked to NHIF prove the health fund to be nothing but a ‘white elephant’.
“Why has NHIF in Kenya failed? Because money is stolen from it what has been the issue? How many scandals have we gotten from the NHIF?” he posed.
“Who doesn’t know that hospitals organize and patients are taken to certain hospitals and payments are made to people who actually do not go there for treatment other than documentation which is done and it’s all fake.”
Onyonka further proposed that Kenya needs to benchmark with countries whose health insurance schemes have proven to be effective to bolster its administrative structures.
He juxtaposed Tanzania’s health coverage programme to Kenya’s, stating that if unethical individuals continue to be appointed to NHIF then the fraud cases will remain infinite.
“Let’s find out what the other countries are doing like Britain has maintained and managed the provision of healthcare, they have been organising the funding,” he said.
He added: “When you come to us and look at a country like Tanzania, why is Tanzania’s NHIF functioning more effectively? What do we do in Kenya? We pick NHIF money we then put it in a scam, the whole system collapses, we employ relatives, we put them in these jobs and they steal all the money then you call again after 2 or 3 years.”
“Unless President Ruto appoints people into this thing (NHIF) who will run an outfit that is bulletproof who will make sure that health services are provided legitimately, equitably and fairly to Kenyans. I have no problem with rich people paying more money than poor people but what happens, it’s a scam. So until I see NHIF functioning for me I see it as another scam.”
Onyonka’s sentiments come after President Ruto said that he is seeking to compel salaried workers to pay 2.75 per cent of their gross monthly income to the health scheme with those who are self-employed to remit 2.75 per cent of their declared or assessed gross monthly income.
NHIF board chairman Michael Kamau has defended the proposal, saying that it aims to achieve equity in consolidating contributions to the health fund.
Kamau said the low-income earners have been carrying the burden of the contributions to NHIF hence the need to create a level playing field.
“The rule of average… 2.75 per cent is not an increase. Tell anybody paid less than Ksh.35,000 to bring their payslip and you will find out that some of them were paying up to 5 per cent of their salary. So there was no equity,” said Kamau speaking to Citizen TV on Monday.
“Anyone earning Ksh.100,000 and above was paying Ksh.1,700. On average there are 385,000 people on our database who were paying Ksh.1,700 and that works out to an average of 1.12 per cent of their salary. So those people were being carried by the low-income earners.”
