Nairobi Kenya — The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) says Sh3.8 billion in cancer treatment was paid for over 47,000 patients in the last financial year.

Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Kamunyo stated that this accounted for six percent of the total expenditure on the claims last year.

He indicated that40 percent of the monies was spent on chemotherapy, 23 percent on surgery while the rest was distributed to radiotherapy and imaging among others.

"For me that is not just money, it is lives that were saved, it is lives that were improved and it was the quality of life that was improved," he said.

According to Kamunyo, NHIF has been designed as the national social insurance to be there for everyone, especially for those who have not been able to afford it.

He added the 47,000 unique cancer patients that got the funding from NHIF ordinarily would not have afforded the treatment

"No one can carry the cost of healthcare on their own and the since the Kenya Kwanza plan is "kuweka pesa mufukoni" and the easiest way to do this is you all join and ensure you remain members of NHIF because you transfer the risk," he stated.

"For every Sh500 a day, you put in your pocket 600,0000 to take care of complex chemotherapy and for the Sh500 a month for your whole family, you put in your pocket half a million to take care of the individuals under the National Scheme."

Kamunyo added that in the NHIF they have no exclusions of either age, pre-existing illnesses and cancer, however the benefit package that they have tried to put together is to address the growing need of people.

"The reforms that we have been having in earnest from 2015 when we introduced this package we are talking about and outpatient care, they were introduced because of the need that we had," he said.