MoH: 15.5 million Kenyans registered under SHA

The Ministry of Health now says that 15, 559,426 Kenyans have already registered with the new Social Health Authority (SHA) scheme.

This is as of Thursday, November 28, 2024.

According to Wambugu Kariuki, the South Rift Regional manager for SHA, 9, 752,780 of these are voluntary registrations.

From the over 9,752,780 voluntary SHA registrations, at least 3.6 million are aged between 18 and 35 years old, 3.33 million are aged between 36 to 55 years, while over 1.37 million are above 55 years old.

Some 1.45 million are aged below 18 years.

The remaining 5,806,646 were migrated from the now-defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

From the registered members, SHA said 2,157,289 are dependents where by 1.477,078 are below the age of 18 years.

Some 357,952 are dependents between the age of 18-35 years, 212,522 are between 36 - 55, while 109,738 are above 55 years old.

According to the authority, so far, 41,334 employers have also joined the scheme.

Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Lamu, Kiambu and Bomet are among the top five counties with most registrations, while Turkana, Garissa, Mandera, West Pokot and Marsabit have the lowest registration numbers.

This comes even as the rollout of the new health scheme has continued to face challenges and complaints from many Kenyans.

SHA is the authority mandated to manage the new Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) in a significant policy shift that intends to provide health insurance cover to over 50 million Kenyans up from the 10 million that were under NHIF.

The shift is a step toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and all Kenyan citizens and their dependents must register as SHA members to reap the benefits of SHIF.

The transition was greeted with skepticism, confusion and system failure with patients claiming they were being asked to pay out of pocket, but the government said the teething problems have since been resolved and SHIF is now working seamlessly.

The Ministry of Health has continued to encourage Kenyans to register with SHA in an ongoing exercise that’s being spearheaded by Community Health Promoters at the county and ward level.