Kenya Medical Practitioners and Doctors Union (KMPDU) Secretary General Davji Atellah has termed the proposed 2.75% deduction for the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) as a result of the government’s greed.
This he opined during an interview on Citizen TV’s Daybreak Show on Wednesday where he argued that the proposal is being made without proper implementation structures.
He termed the move as exploitative, noting that the soon-to-be phased-out National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has no flaws and the haste to switch to the SHIF is not a well-thought-out plan.
“Ideally for us, we see that 2.75% is an outright exploitation of the workers and this is well embedded in the report which you have seen for NHIF 2023 financial report,” said Atellah.
“The utilisation of the fund was 87% they even had an extra Ksh.11 billion that was not utilised. I don’t know the rush of government to extract more funds from the salaries Kenyans and then do not have mechanisms for the actualisation.”
Endebess MP Robert Pukose who was on the same interview defended the scheme, arguing that it will help equalise service provision in the health sector.
Soon as Pukose started his argument “…but have we asked ourselves what is informing the government in terms of the 2.75% proposal…” Atellah interjected, “I think it is greed”.
Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Susan Nakhumicha, while defending the implementation of SHIF on January 25, argued that the NHIF system was plagued by a myriad of fundamental flaws that made it an unviable medical cover option for Kenyans, hence the need for a switch.
CS Nakhumicha went ahead to state that NHIF was only designed for salaried Kenyans who could afford to pay it, thereby overlooking unemployed citizens therefore the move to institute a system that addresses the health concerns of all Kenyans – salaried or not.
The SHIF will see salaried employees make a monthly contribution of 2.75% and unsalaried Kenyans will contribute a minimum of Ksh.300.
The implementation of the Act had been barred by the High Court until January 19, when the Court of Appeal lifted orders that were issued by the High Court.
Nakhumicha says it will be launched in March 2024 and a Social Health Authority has already been unveiled to spearhead its transition.
