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{
    "id": 356365,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/356365/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 260,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Mbarire",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 78,
        "legal_name": "Cecily Mutitu Mbarire",
        "slug": "cecily-mbarire"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion by hon. Joseph Gitari. I want to begin by congratulating him for thinking ahead of many of us on this particular matter. Any Member of Parliament knows that the biggest burden that we carry in our constituencies is healthcare. Many times Members of Parliament have to participate in many fund raisings to see how to cushion our communities and our constituents from huge medical bills. I see that the institution that has been given the mandate to help reduce this health burden is instead increasing it; this itself is not a good thing. Charging a defaulter 500 per cent of the outstanding amount as a penalty is discouraging prospective members of NHIF from becoming members of that important Fund. I know that back home the amount my constituents have been paying is Kshs1,950 per year. This is not little money considering that many of them live on a dollar a day. It is, therefore, important that much as the penalty is important so as to deter future defaulters, it must be a penalty that people can afford. Most of these people back home need this insurance policy in order to take care of their medical challenges. I rise to support that it be reduced from 500 per cent but to 25 per cent, because at this level it ceases to be a penalty. Once a penalty, then anybody will be defaulting and there is no need for anybody to feel the pinch for defaulting. There must be a level of deterrence by the penalties that we come up with. I would like to support hon. Mwaura who suggested 200 per cent. Reducing it to 25 per cent is not deterrent enough. It is very important that this House comes up with some of universal health care for our country. I was in the Ninth Parliament and the then Minister for Health, hon. Charity Ngilu, brought a very important Bill, but it was “killed”, mainly because of the interest of the private sector. In the Tenth Parliament, the NHIF came up with some form of a universal health care through a pilot project that went sour because of the issues that came up during procurement stage. The issue of Clinix is still very fresh in our minds. The Eleventh Parliament must ensure that we give to the citizens of this country a universal health care, so that disease can cease to impoverish our citizenry. I hope that the Jubilee Government, which promised universal health care in its manifesto, will bring a Bill as soon as possible, so that we have ample time to go through it and ensure that we protect it from external influence by interested private sector players. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}