President William Ruto declared on Thursday that Universal Health Care's plan would include catering to those who couldn’t afford health insurance.
While launching a Huduma Centre at Marimanti in Tharaka Nithi, Ruto stated that the government would be facilitating the payments for the new Social Health Insurance Fund for those who could not afford it.
He urged Kenyans to register for the program to allow the government to assess details of those who can’t pay for the services.
Ruto added that an assessment would be conducted to determine the level of need for those who could not afford the program.
“Everyone should register for the plan so that we can know what are their health needs, what do they require and what is the level of income per household”, he stated.
“Even those who can’t afford to pay for the insurance, we want to know who they are so we can cater to the payments, stated Ruto.
He also added that the project has so far registered close to a million people with more than 19 million expected to register in due course.
“We want every Kenyan to receive treatment for free and because of that I am asking you to register under the Universal health Coverage scheme,” he added.
The President added that the government was reliant on the community health workers to register individuals into the scheme.
However, despite the President’s push to have Kenyans register for the program, SHIF has been in limbo after the court suspended some of its operations.
Following the suspension, in a notice dated July 24, the Social Health Authority confirmed relegating financing of health services to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
The NHIF is expected to continue its operations until the court stalemate is resolved and a way forward issued.
