Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has written to the Clerk of the Senate seeking amendments to the Social Health Insurance Bill which is meant to replace the National Health Insurance Fund.
In his proposals, Sifuna seeks to have the current NHIF employees to automatically keep their jobs once the Social Health Insurance Bill is assented to.
The senator said he has two issues with the Bill, one being that it requires current employees of NHIF to reapply for their positions once the bill passes.
Sifuna wants the First Schedule of the Bill to be amended in paragraph 6 by deleting sub paragraph (3).
His drafted amendment seeks to provide for automatic absorption of current staff of NHIF into the new scheme.
"That a person who immediately before the commencement of this Act was an employee of the Fund under the National Health Insurance Fund Act (now repealed) shall be an employee of the Authority as if appointed under this Act," the senator said.
"And that all benefits accruing to an employee under the National Health Insurance Fund Act (repealed) shall continue to accrue to that employee under this Act."
Sifuna further faulted the Social Health Insurance Bill for lack of clarity on how much those who will be categorised as premium will pay.
"The other issue is it doesn’t say how much premium Kenyan’s will pay and we all know this government’s voracious appetite for taxation," Sifuna said in a statement on X on Thursday.
The senator's amendment proposal seeks to cap deductions at Sh2,000.
In the amendments drafted by Sifuna, the senator seeks that clause 27 of the Social Health Insurance Bill be relooked at.
"That clause 27 of the Bill be amended by inserting the following new sub clauses immediately after sub clause (2)" the draft read in part.
He said clause (2A) ought to read that the rate prescribed under sub clause (2)(a) shall be on a graduated scale and shall not exceed two thousand Shillings per month.
