Social Health Authority (SHA) Chairperson Timothy Olweny has revealed that the government is working around the clock to have the new health insurance programme begin on March 1.
Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV, Olweny detailed that February will be dedicated to the ongoing public participation, parliament approval and gazettement of the proposed regulations.
Should the government's plan be actualised, all Kenyans will therefore be required to register afresh under the new scheme within 90 days.
Salaried Kenyans, on the other hand, will be registered within the first nine days of March given that salary deductions are to be remitted to the authority by the 9th of every month.
With the proposed timelines, salaried Kenyans should have the new deduction effected on their February payslips.
It is proposed for employed Kenyans to pay 2.75 per cent of their salary for health insurance.
"Registration was supposed to start at the beginning of March. It is a very tight time frame because if you think about public participation for another two weeks, then going through the legislative bodies and getting the go-ahead, and then the gazettement.
"It is a very tight time frame, but that’s what we’re still working with,” he stated.
On the other hand, non-salaried Kenyans will have the new deductions effected once they register. The government is set to deploy a metric to determine how much Kenyans in the informal sector will pay.
According to President William Ruto and Health CS Susan Nakhumicha, most Kenyans in the informal sector will be paying Ksh300 to get health coverage.
In the meantime, Olweny reiterated that Kenyans will still get covered by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) even as it transitions to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
According to Olweny, NHIF should achieve this within one year.
"At the moment the NHIF infrastructure is still in operation because we did not want to interfere with service provision," he stated.
