Doubts linger over President Uhuru Kenyatta's project after the government issued stringent rules in the new National Health Insurance Fund's (NHIF) guidelines.
On Thursday, January 9, NHIF made changes to the terms of its cover, reviewing the number of dependants to a maximum of five children and one spouse for the national scheme. Previously, the card could accommodate up to 10 members of the same family.
It also increased the waiting period for new voluntary members from 60 days to 90 days and one is expected to have paid Ksh 6,000 upfront for the 12 months.
In December 2018, Kenyatta launched the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Pilot Program dubbed Afya Care – Wema wa Mkenya to enable Kenyans access affordable healthcare.
Among questions raised are: Will Kenyatta achieve this target, considering that many Kenyans and politicians alike have spoken out in protest of the guidelines.
"The new NHIF rules will harm mwananchi by reversing the gains made by the universal healthcare program under the Big 4 Agenda.
"The NHIF board has to rescind these rules so that they do not interfere with the president’s vision of ensuring equitable access to healthcare in Kenya," Starehe MP Charles Jaguar tweeted on Friday, January 10.
Dr Mercy Korir, a medical journalist attached to KTN News, questioned how Kenyans were supposed to survive following the changes.
"What all these means, in my opinion, NHIF may deviate from being social insurance and it will be no different from the commercial insurance. 50 per cent of Kenyans live under Ksh 100 a day, how will they meet these conditions?" she wondered.
NHIF has been embroiled with multiple scandals over the past years. In 2019, reports surfaced that NHIF could have lost more than Ksh10 billion in false medical claims, as officials were suspected to have colluded with hospitals to generate false bills for workers who had never sought treatment.
In 2018, an NHIF receptionist, Fredrick Sagwe Onyancha, stunned the nation when investigations revealed that he flew in helicopters, drove high-end vehicles, and owned a villa, after he was implicated in a Ksh500 million scandal.
