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{
    "id": 123182,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/123182/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 275,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "content": "set up some resources, to put at the disposal of the Social Health Insurance Scheme, to pay for extending the services to the poor. Thirdly, and this is why I am appealing to the House and Kenyans as a whole, at the moment I contribute Kshs320 per month to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and my driver contributes the same. This is not equitable, because my income is much higher than that of my driver. From Sessional Paper No.10, this nation committed itself to the philosophy of mutual/social responsibility; in other words, that we must be our brother’s and sister’s keepers. So, if I have more money, I should bear more social responsibility of extending health care to the poor than my driver who earns less. We are also proposing in the new policy to contribute to the Social Health Insurance Scheme in terms of a graduated contribution based on a percentage of one’s salary, so that if I pay one per cent, one per cent of my salary is very different from one percent of my driver’s salary. In other words, I will pay more in terms of shillings and cents than my driver. In that regard, because I know that I am covered by AON Minet, I will cede my contribution to the Social Health Insurance Scheme to cover the poor. In other words, we intend to remove the proposal by health providers; that when I am sick in hospital and I am a contributor to the Social Health Insurance Scheme and I am also covered by AON Minet, they will first take some money from my contribution to the Social Health Insurance Scheme before they take something from AON Minet. If I am covered by AON Minet, I should be covered by them fully when I am at Nairobi Hospital and I leave my contribution to the Social Health Insurance Scheme to be used by the poor. I think this is what is called mutual/social responsibility. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to give this document my full support and that of the Ministry of Medical Services. I would also like to appeal to Kenyans; that there is nothing more important than taking care of the health of the people. Somebody once said: “We may think that education is expensive; try ignorance.” We may think that paying for insurance is expensive, try doing without it and then we end up where we are today. When people are sick at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) you and I are called upon to go to harambees and contribute towards their hospital bills. We end up spending more money out of our pockets to redeem sick people in hospitals. The tragedy goes further; that when they die, we are equally compelled to organize harambees at Garden Square to raise money to redeem dead bodies from the City Mortuary, where even as I speak today, there are many more bodies which have stayed there longer than they should because they have not been paid for. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I intend to approach the Mayor of Nairobi City Council together with the authorities of KNH, so that before Christmas this year, any body which lies at the City Mortuary or the mortuary at the KNH, should be released to their relatives, so that we stop the unnecessary congestion at the mortuary at KNH or the City Mortuary. This is because it is counterproductive to pile dead bodies at the City Mortuary and make it almost impossible to be managed, because bills are not paid. The longer they stay there, the more expensive releasing them becomes. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have been extremely agonized by reports at the KNH as well as Pumwani Maternity Hospital. We have many patients who have been cured and treated but they cannot go home because they cannot pay their bills. That is the more reason why we should be in a hurry to enact the Social Health Insurance Scheme, so that we do not meet the travesties in our health facilities."
}