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{
    "id": 1092226,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092226/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 271,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyando, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Jared Okelo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13457,
        "legal_name": "Jared Odoyo Okelo",
        "slug": "jared-odoyo-okelo-2"
    },
    "content": "As a matter of fact, healthcare takes so much. The pandemic has made it even worse. At the advent of the pandemic in the month of March last year, for an admission of a COVID-19 patient in any hospital, an amount of Kshs300,000 must be paid upfront and you ask yourself where Kshs300,000 would be coming from, especially for a disease that never gives any notice. Of course, all diseases never give any notice and Kenyans do not enjoy the latitude that is enjoyed by other nations where there are safety nets in terms of health insurance. America was just grappling with Obama-care which was to provide some safety to the patients who were confronted with other terminal diseases or just any other kind of disease that is coming about. So, we are in a “catch 22 situation.” Our people must get access to healthcare as is espoused in Article 43 of our Constitution. We also have to contend with humongous bills that are sent by different health facilities to patients. So, I would say this Bill is timely. It is giving more responsibilities and teeth to the NHIF and trying to expand that horizon so that it can incorporate so many people under the same category. As Members of Parliament, I cannot imagine the number of phone calls we get on a daily basis asking for hospital bills for patients to be released from various health facilities. I have a Bill under a conveyor belt that talks about indigents not being arbitrarily detained by various health facilities in the country. I have been looking at how much we spend on matters of health. Even when people retire and they get their pension and they have to get that gratuity, that part of it without any insurance cushioning it, all the money goes towards healthcare and you ask yourself if you were working for your health so that, at the end of the day, you pay to hospitals those huge sums of money. I think people work in order that they can create and build wealth and that wealth is now used to expand it even further, but not to someday take the whole savings to pay for hospital bills. Therefore, this is a Bill that I think we must all universally support so that we have some grounding in terms of our healthcare. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have noted each time I visit a health facility and I use my insurance card, there are security features that are employed on that scheme where you have to use your thumb in order to give them permission to attend to you. Secondly, they have to call your employer for verification. Additionally, they have to call the insurer so that there is concurrence. But in the NHIF – and this is susceptible to abuse and manipulation – there is nothing to counter-check the veracity of that claim and that is what brings about fake claims."
}