Mike Mwaniki
31 August 2008
Nairobi — A revised draft of the proposed National Social Health Insurance is now ready and will soon be presented to the Cabinet for approval, the Medical Services minister has said.
Prof Anyang' Nyong'o said contributors to the scheme will be expected to pay between Sh40 and Sh2,000 per month depending on their income levels.
"High income earners such as ministers like myself will contribute Sh2,000 on a monthly basis to ensure the scheme is able to cater for the poor in accessing quality healthcare services," he said.
To enable the scheme to remain sustainable, the Government would also be expected to contribute funds to the proposed scheme.
The minister, however, could not give the amount Treasury would contribute.
He could also not give details as to whether the proposed health scheme would be mandatory or voluntary.
"The proposed health scheme will provide cover for both out-patient and in-patient fees on a graduated basis and it is envisioned that by 2015, it will provide cover to 60 per cent of the Kenyan population," Prof Nyong'o said.
He told journalists that the National Health Insurance Fund Act 1998 would be amended.
The minister was speaking after presiding over the third graduation ceremony for paediatric nurses at Gertrude's Children's Hospital in Nairobi.
Unlike a previous controversial mandatory health insurance scheme spearheaded by former Health minister Charity Ngilu, which was later rejected by President Kibaki, Prof Nyong'o said that the proposed scheme would be different.
He said it does not require employers and their workers in the private sector to "do away with their existing health insurance cover".
In 2005, Mrs Ngilu accused then Finance minister David Mwiraria of sabotaging that scheme by saying the Government did not have money to fund it.
President Kibaki later refused to give assent to the Bill seeking to establish the scheme, arguing that the Government could not afford it.
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