Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has come out to address concerns raised by Kenyans about contributions to the new Social Health Authority.
Speaking in Kisumu during a town hall interview on Citizen TV on Wednesday night, the CS expressed confidence that the government had put in mechanisms to ensure all Kenyans from different social classes were included in the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) model.
She said no person would be left behind since those unable to pay the Ksh.300 minimum premiums would be paid for by the government through a subsidy program which would be rolled out before Kenyans begin contributions in July this year.
CS Nakhumicha was responding to concerns about people in the informal sector riding on the backs of salaried Kenyans.
According to the CS, phasing out the longstanding National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and replacing it with SHIF was more beneficial to ordinary citizens since everybody would be contributing to the SHA.
“In the current law, we have put mechanisms of enforcing people to pay their Social Health Authority. So, already there is a population that the National Government is going to take care of at Ksh.300 per person per month for their insurance,” Nakhumicha said.
“For those who can’t pay won’t pay, they have no income, the government is putting in a subsidy to pay for their SHA,” she added, in contrast to employed Kenyans who will be deducted the premiums from their monthly pay.
The health minister said they have put in mechanisms to ensure Kenyans in the informal Kenyans will be required to pay for their SHA “at the point (they) interact with a government service.”
“We have the informal where the issue is…being informal doesn’t mean that one does not have an income. We have people in the informal sector yet they earn millions and millions of shillings. We have put a mechanism so that at the point you interact with a government service, then you are required to pay for your SHA,” she said.
“For the informal, we will require you to pay for your annual premium, not monthly. The government has no other way of interacting with you as an informal person except that time you are coming for a service.”
Nakhumicha said the new health insurance model will have the provision of borrowing from the government-run Hustler Fund or Saccos, for those with unstable income patterns, so that they can pay their premiums and repay the lenders later.
“For those (informal) whose informal income is not uniform or consistent, such as construction where today they have Ksh.60,000 and the next month Ksh.10,000, we have made a provision that you pay once when you have the income. For those who don’t have but are likely to get it, we have put a mechanism for premium financing such as Hustler Fund where you can borrow money and pay for your SHA. We have a mechanism for the private sector, where they can borrow money and pay for your premiums,” she said.
“We have also put some aggregation mechanisms for people who belong to Saccos so Saccos can advance them money to pay for SHA.”
The CS appealed to Kenyans to change their culture so that they could be able to pay their dues affront without being coerced to do so, arguing that it is for their health benefits.
