The government has acknowledged a discrepancy of Ksh100 billion in the new health scheme while announcing plans to unveil a new portal for Kenyans to assess how much they will pay for Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) premiums on Friday.
Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa, while addressing the media on Wednesday, acknowledged the Auditor General’s report on Social Health Authority (SHA) discrepancies exceeding Ksh100 billion and insisted the issues will be addressed.
This comes as Acting SHA CEO Robert Ingasira revealed that the contributions to the scheme are being held in six bank accounts with the outgoing funds directed toward hospital payments.
According to the Director General of Health, Dr Patrick Amoth, the government is creating a more transparent and easy tool for Kenyans to use to determine how much they will pay to the Social Health Authority (SHA).
While addressing a press conference at Afya House amid protests outside the Upper Hill offices, Amoth said the new portal will require Kenyans to log in and then input their ID card numbers to begin the computation.
According to Amoth, the system will use the available data from SHA to determine how much an average person will contribute to the kitty. Already, about 3.3 million employed Kenyans are contributing Ksh73 billion to the fund annually.
Under the SHA Act of 2023, the government is to employ a means-testing instrument to assess individuals' financial capacities, determining appropriate premium contributions. This instrument collects data on various socio-economic aspects, including housing characteristics, access to basic services, and household composition.
The process is guided by the Social Health Insurance Regulations, 2024, which stipulate the use of this means-testing tool to estimate household income for premium calculations.
Additionally, the SHA integrates data from multiple government agencies, such as the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), Ministry of Lands, Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), Registrar of Companies, Communications Authority, Hustler Fund, and the Immigration Department.
Already, 3.8 million Kenyans have taken the means testing, according to the Ministry of Health, with the number of Kenyans registered on the scheme jumping to 20.2 million.
All this comes at a time when the government has outlined plans to inject more funds into the troubled scheme. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, while appearing before the Senate on Wednesday, defended SHA while insisting the government will be allocating money to the troubled scheme in the new budget.
“There is no country that has implemented Universal Health Coverage without issues around it. We cannot afford to lose SHA. It is the best system for this country,” Mbadi said.
