Unemployed Kenyans To Pay Ksh 6,000 NHIF Fee in 2021

National Health and Insurance Fund (NHIF) Offices Building in Nairobi. Monday, November 18, 2019.
National Health and Insurance Fund (NHIF) Building in Nairobi. Monday, November 18, 2019.
Simon Kiragu
Kenyans.co.ke

Starting in 2021, unemployed Kenyans may usher in the New Year with new policies that will force them to pay Ksh 6,000 annually to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) in order to access healthcare services. 

The Ksh 6,000 annual contribution, which equates to Ksh 500 per month, will be mandatory for all Kenyans regardless of their employment status. 

This monthly contribution is to fund the Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which is one of President Uhuru Kenyatta's priorities under the Big Four Agenda. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta speaking at the Health Sector Intergovernmental Forum on Universal Health Coverage in Mombasa County on October 31, 2020.
President Uhuru Kenyatta speaking at the Health Sector Intergovernmental Forum on Universal Health Coverage in Mombasa County on October 31, 2020.
File

The acting Director-General for Health Patrick Amoth announced that the UHC program will cover one nuclear family, being at most two parents and children under 18 years. Dependants can also be covered through their parents up to 24 years if they are in school, or a lifetime if they are severely disabled. 

“The package covers outpatient and inpatient services, communicable and non-communicable disease management, maternity, dialysis, radiology, mental health, minor and major surgery, substance abuse rehabilitation, emergency services and cancer treatment among others,” Amoth said.

Kenyans who are already in formal employment will continue to make their existing contributions, which could be more than Ksh 500 depending on salary level.

"For those employed, nothing changes. The benefit is to Kenyans who are not employed," Amoth added.

UHC seeks to ensure access to safe, effective, quality essential health care services, including affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all Kenyans regardless of their economic status. 

The government aspires that by 2022, all persons in Kenya will be able to use the essential services they need for their health and wellbeing through a single unified package, without the risk of a financial crisis

The government is rolling out the program in a two-phase strategy in which the UHC model was to be first piloted in four counties before rolling out to the rest. These four counties were Kisumu, Machakos, Nyeri and Isiolo all of which were chosen because of the high rate of communicable and non –communicable diseases, high population density, high maternal mortality and high incidence of road traffic injuries.

The initial project cost Ksh3.17 billion and targeted 3.2 million Kenyans but was, unfortunately, found to be unsustainable. 

According to a Treasury report released in November, the government decided to chip in to support the UHC. The registration of these low-income families into UHC was later launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta on October 31.

Treasury said the government would spend Ksh29.7 billion for the national rollout next fiscal year. This is expected to increase to Ksh35 billion and later to Ksh25.8 billion in the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Another Ksh12 billion has been set aside to cater for the UHC scheme for the supply of equipment to facilities providing primary healthcare. 

A photo showing National the Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) headquarters in Nairobi.
National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) headquarters in Nairobi.
Photo
NHIF
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