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{
    "id": 1095079,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1095079/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui West, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Edith Nyenze",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13513,
        "legal_name": "Edith Nyenze",
        "slug": "edith-nyenze"
    },
    "content": "been mandatory since the NHIF Act of 1998, which states that any ordinary resident of Kenya, whether salaried or self-employed, shall be liable as a contributor to the Fund. However, in practice, NHIF membership for informal sector workers who constitute 83 per cent of the Kenyan workforce has remained voluntary. So, it has not been mandatory for the informal sector. Mandatory NHIF coverage will raise revenues for universal healthcare (UHC) and improve repayment of the financial protection. Currently, only 20 per cent of Kenyans have any form of health insurance coverage with 85 per cent of them covered by the NHIF. So, health coverage amongst the formal sector is near universal compared to 15 per cent coverage amongst the informal sector. That is why there should be a lot of marketing and raising of awareness in the informal sector, so that they can be members of the NHIF. The other problem with the NHIF is that when you join, you are supposed to wait for six months before you benefit from the cover. If you delay in payment, you also have to wait for six months after making payment to the Fund. That period of six months is too long, especially for sick people. So, the waiting period should be reduced from six months or even scrapped, so that there is no waiting period before people can benefit from the Fund. The Bill also proposes to change how the NHIF pays out claims. In instances where patients have both private insurance and the NHIF, the health service providers are required to first exhaust the private health insurance coverage before the NHIF pays the outstanding amount, subject to the funds being limited. This is an interesting twist which is a reversal of the current practice. When the NHIF expanded the benefits package in 2016 to cover outpatient surgeries, radiology and other services, private insurance companies quickly saw an opportunity and stipulated that the NHIF acts as the primary insurer for co-insured members, therefore, bearing the biggest component of medical bills. In many ways, the NHIF funds were used to subsidise private insurance. The NHIF is very important to sick people, but the coverage is so low. We should have a way of covering more Kenyans, especially the old and the sickly who should be treated and covered freely by the NHIF, so that we improve our health sector and coverage of the people, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic where private health insurance is not even covering COVID-19. With that, I support the amendment Bill."
}