Patients seeking medical services under the Social Health Authority (SHA) could be experiencing challenges because of a crucial omission during their registration process, the government has revealed.
Director-General for Health, Dr Patrick Amoth in a press conference on Wednesday, February 5, while giving an update on the implementation of the healthcare system disclosed that the government was close to hitting the 19 million registration mark.
However, the Director General noted that despite the high number of Kenyans registering for SHA, not all can access services at designated facilities because they are yet to complete a means testing.
According to the Health Ministry website, means testing is the process of assessing the financial capability of households, particularly those which do not have regular income. This process entails assessing the household's socio-economic factors such as the household's ability to access services, its composition and housing conditions.
Dr Amoth noted that one major challenges the government has had to grapple with, is establishing the true representation of income being generated in a household. On average, the means testing average is yielding a premium of KSh592 Kenya shillings.
"One challenge that we are facing is not many of our people who register through the process complete it in its entirety to the point of doing the means testing." Amoth observed.
Typically, SHA Members who draw their income from salaried employment make contributions every month as a statutory deduction from wages or salary by the employer.
According to the regulations, Kenyans contribute 2.75 per cent, but with a base amount of Ksh300.
"So far we only have 3.1 million people who have done means testing meaning some cannot be eligible for the services under the Social Health insurance fund. They cannot be able to access primary healthcare services and emergency services."
The Director General believes this challenge can be solved by registering for the Social Health Authority early enough, rather than attempting to do so when one is in need of medical assistance. The government has also encouraged Kenyans to liaise with community health promoters to assist them with the complete registration process.
Amid the challenges facing SHA, key stakeholders have come up with plans to resolve the glitches in the new healthcare system that is barely six months old. In January, leaders from Machakos county proposed to revert Key functions of the Social Health Authority (SHA) to the National government - a move which they believed would resolve the problem of lack of sufficient workforce experienced in county hospitals.
Meanwhile, MPs have given the Ministry of Health and SHA representatives two weeks to deliberate and come up with a comprehensive report about the key challenges facing the new healthcare system.
