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{
    "id": 1092195,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092195/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Lagdera, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mohamed Hire",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13397,
        "legal_name": "Mohamed Hire Garane",
        "slug": "mohamed-hire-garane-2"
    },
    "content": "Therefore, if we need to achieve the universal healthcare, we need to have a modern and transparent healthcare delivery system. These amendments to the Bill are a welcome move. I would like to touch on a few of them. Aligning the NHIF with the global practice where private health insurance is the primary player while the social insurer becomes the second player is a welcome move. It will ensure that the vulnerable population in the society is catered for. Making it mandatory for all persons above the age of 18 years to make contributions is also a noble idea. However, the concern is: Do we have the health infrastructure, namely, the hospitals, to match? When you make it mandatory for everybody above the age of 18 years, it means that the contributions will be more. Those people seeking healthcare services will increase meaning that you need to have adequate health infrastructure facilities that are able to cater for this increased population. You also need to have personnel to offer the services. If you go to the rural areas, you find that most of the health centres such as dispensaries are either understaffed or have no staff at all. You also find that there is little or no medicine in the facilities. Therefore, if we are going to make contribution mandatory for all persons above the age of 18, then we need to also be prepared for the increased population that will be seeking healthcare services. Reduction of the penalty for the self-employed people is also a good thing. These are people who do not have a constant stream of income because they are self-employed and their income is seasonal. One time they have money and another time they do not. So, if you impose penalties on them whether they have some income or not, which is actually exorbitant in my opinion, it will be detrimental and this will probably discourage them even from seeking healthcare services. The voluntary contribution by the youth is also a nice amendment because you find that there are some youth out there who may be having some disposable income. So, they should be encouraged to enrol. If you need to enrol in the NHIF, you must have the national identity (ID) card. That is a mandatory requirement. However, when you encourage the youth out there who are above the age of 18 years to enrol for the medical scheme, then it is also a good amendment. Finally, digitisation of the processes of the NHIF is one of the biggest problems that the NHIF has been having. If you seek services of the NHIF, what you normally produce is the card. There is no way to authenticate whether the card is yours or for someone else. That is one of the leaking points for the NHIF where they have been losing lots of money. You also find that in this age of technological advancement, the NHIF is still stuck with some analogue systems of identifying health service seekers. They are not using biometric identification. You only produce the card. This is one of the areas that they need to improve on."
}