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{
    "id": 1092610,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092610/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 367,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Wilberforce Oundo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13331,
        "legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
        "slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Bill at hand, that is, the National Hospital Insurance Fund (Amendment) Bill from the National Assembly. Probably if there is anything that has got the potential of disorganising a family and wiping away a family’s investment and wealth, it is medical bills. As we say in my community, you never know when you will fall sick. You can decide when to sleep and when to wake to up but you never know when you will fall sick and you never know what kind of illness that will befall you. You never know how much it will cost to treat the illness. You never know how long it will cost to treat illness. In typical terms, illness is like a risk and many times you choose whether to retain the risk or to transfer the risk. Since you do not know the ultimate outcome of a risk, the practice has always been that in such circumstances, you transfer the risk. That probably is the genesis of medical insurance cover and probably the genesis of the NHIF. There are very many good stories out of the NHIF in terms of paying medical bills and providing affordable medical care. There are also other harrowing experiences about the NHIF, but probably in respect of this Bill, it is important to focus on the positive part of it. Looking at the Bill as drafted, it seeks to do a few things that hitherto were not in the original Bill. One, is to entrench the Universal Health Care (UHC) that has been a talk all along for many years in this country. We have people in this country who truly cannot afford to subscribe to any medical cover because they have no money. They are retired, vulnerable, indigent and have no source of income. Those are the people that are the most important aspect of this Bill. This Bill compels the national Government to basically make arrangements to pay medical insurance for those people."
}