Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago has come up with a radical solution to ensure all leaders are on the same page as far as the Social Health Authority (SHA) is concerned.
Speaking during a church service at the AIC Fellowship Annex in Eldoret, Mandago criticized certain leaders, accusing them of attempting to undermine the government's efforts to boost SHA registrations.
The former Governor suggested that civil servants and parliamentarians should have their medical cover removed, compelling them to rely entirely on SHA to fully appreciate the significance of Universal Health Coverage.
"We want to urge you to register yourselves because the government is committed to reducing the cost of medical care," Mandago stated.
The Senator added, "Because a few leaders want to downplay what the government is doing with SHA, I have thought of a very radical decision. That we remove medical cover for all parliamentarians, and civil servants, and we all enroll for SHA."
His suggestion was met with applause from the church, with Mandago insisting that this was a radical way to increase the chances of SHA's success.
"That is the language they will understand because the President has committed to have everyone to have affordable healthcare. Because those who are privileged are the ones who are misleading the rest of the country. We want to tell them that is not the direction we are willing to take," Mandago went on.
The Senator's comments came amid a myriad of challenges facing SHA, including the ongoing funding crisis. More recently Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale challenged the Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa to address the emerging issues around the medical scheme, saying Kenyans on the ground were against SHA.
Despite the rollout of SHA, Members of Parliament still enjoy a comprehensive medical insurance scheme, which extends to their immediate family members with considerable benefits totalling KSh10.65 million annually. This includes Inpatient Cover of KSh 10 million an outpatient Cover of KSh300,000 annually, maternity Benefits of KSh 150,000 per year, dental and optical cover of KSh 100,000 each per year and funeral cover amounting to KSh 100,000.
With this in mind, there has been an ongoing debate against lawmakers on what would happen to their cover if they left office, with the issue coming up during a mid-term retreat in January.
Some of the lawmakers were willing to contribute monthly to the said medical scheme in addition to other deductions so that they could enjoy the benefits later, upon retirement.
Meanwhile, in November, the Ministry of National Treasury & Economic Planning published a draft bill titled the Public Finance Management (Public Officers Medical Scheme Fund) Regulations, 2024, targeting civil servants.
The bill sought to make the already extensive perks for public servants even more comprehensive under the Universal Health Coverage scheme.
