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{
    "id": 141193,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/141193/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 305,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang’-Nyon’go",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Medical Services",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 193,
        "legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
        "slug": "peter-nyongo"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me begin by thanking all the hon. Members who contributed very constructively to this Vote, and particularly my dear friend, Mr. Monda, who is the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Health. I appreciate the concerns of hon. Members regarding the under-funding of the Ministry. I hope that when I say that in the next year’s Budget things could be better, it means that we want to work together with Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Departmental Committee on Health to make representations to the Government for that increase in budgeting. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there has been a lot of concern about the National Social Health Insurance Fund (NSHIF). Hon. Laboso has just spoken about it. Other MPs spoke about it earlier. Let me say that we are very advanced in making this happen. We have already crafted a Cabinet Memorandum, which is currently with the Ministry of Finance. We have made proposals towards amending the National Hospital Insurance Fund Act. The Bill amending the Act will have to come to Parliament with the requisite memorandum, explaining why it is being done. I believe, as hon. Laboso said, that when we have the NSHIF, it will address a lot of issues regarding health funding, particularly for the poor. The concerns that have been expressed about the KNH, as one hon. Member said, is really because when poor people go for medical attention, they may not have the money to pay for them to be attended to but the KNH has to admit them. Once KNH has admitted and treated them, it has to recover its costs. If these people were covered by a NSHIF, the KNH and other hospitals – both private and public – would really not worry about whether these people have money or not, because they would be covered by NSHIF. It is in the interest of this nation for us to have an effective, efficient and accessible healthcare; it is for us to expedite the implementation of the NSHIF Scheme. Madam Temporary deputy Speaker, Mrs. Shabesh and other MPs raised a very important issue that I would like to respond to - the money being lost at the NHIF. In the past, the NHIF implemented projects that are not its core business. When I was the Chairman of the Public Investments Committee (PIC) in the mid1990s, we also addressed ourselves to this question. I must say that since the mid 1990s to date, there has been improvement at the NHIF. Currently, our proposal is that the NHIF should address itself to its core business. That is why we are moving very fast to establish the NSHIF. We have also cut down considerably on pilferage at the NHIF, by putting in place an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) system, so that the management of the Fund is taken away from the subjective hands of human beings into a computerised system that will make accountability much more effective."
}