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{
    "id": 1344173,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1344173/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 356,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Uasin Gishu County, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gladys Boss",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The Social Health Insurance Fund that has been established will be publicly funded. The difference is that this Fund will not only cover those who are employed or are under a payroll as was designed by the soon to be repealed National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), but also those in informal employment. Formerly, the only people who could access the highest attainable possible healthcare were those in formal employment. We know that only 4.7 million Kenyans are in formal employment while 16 million are in informal employment. Since it is publicly funded, it will give us the opportunity to save ourselves from the predatory nature of private insurance. Private insurance today will do anything not to pay an invoice that has been provided. They will do anything to claim that you had a pre-existing condition. I have had a personal experience where an insurance company said that the patient I had taken to the hospital had a pre-existing condition even though it was diagnosed for the very first time in that particular hospital. They got away with it. Also, from my own experience, private insurance companies are also rejected by most top hospitals and doctors in this country. Most doctors will tell you that they will fill a thousand papers; spend time filling out forms and doing paperwork and send to a private insurance company which will take three months to pay. Anybody can testify to that. Very recently, I was at a hospital along Parklands Road where I took my patient. The hospital said that they accept National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), but not private insurance. They refused to accept Jubilee Insurance even though the person had a comprehensive cover. They said that insurance takes too long to pay them and yet, private insurance companies demand upfront payment of premiums. So, they will receive the money in advance but delay as much as possible to pay others. It is our hope as Kenyans that a publicly funded and financed health insurance will save us from this mess. Looking at the current structure as set out in this Bill, this Authority has taken many lessons from the failures of NHIF. We know that for a long time, many private hospitals benefited more from NHIF than public hospitals. In the last few years, we know of hospitals that were ranked as the highest single beneficiaries of NHIF payments and yet, they did not have the highest number of patients. It is mind-boggling that private hospitals that are only operating in two towns in Kenya were receiving NHIF payments ahead of Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). We hope that with this new management and design, those processes will be a thing of the past."
}