The Social Health Authority (SHA) has promised to enhance its health insurance package with new offers to woo Kenyans to register for the scheme and to counter bad publicity that has affected the uptake of the public product, according to Ministry of Health Principal Secretary for Medical Services Harry Kimtai.
Kimtai, speaking to the media in his Afya House office, said Kenyans would appreciate the boost to the health scheme to be rolled out in the New Year, with all packages cut out to fit into the Social Health Insurance Act (SHIA).
The PS said the government has started by releasing Sh1.5 billion to the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority to purchase drugs for all primary health care facilities in the 47 counties.
He said the tranche to KEMSA is meant to ensure that dispensaries and Level 1 clinics that are to offer free service for all patients registered under the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) have enough drugs.
Shortage
of drugs has been one of the most widespread complaints by patients across the
country as the overall Taifa Healthcare programme that encompasses the whole
new health insurance scheme continues to face a barrage of criticism.
“Kenyans can expect a whole new experience of Taifa care in the new year. From the primary healthcare to the higher categories of the insurance scheme, the cover will work the way it was meant to operate,” Kimtai said.
He said those who seek treatment at the primary healthcare facilities will get it for free, even if they have yet to pay their contribution to the SHIF, but they must first be registered.
He said the registration process has been simplified to the requirement of Identity Card only, clarifying that documents for employed ranks of members will be filled out by the employer while the self-employed and unemployed will only be asked for the ID Card.
He said the SHA scheme will introduce the chronic diseases fund for those with chronic ailments to access treatment even where they have not paid up for the scheme contributions.
The most outstanding example of the frustration of patients, noted PS Kimtai, has been the lack of flawless care for dialysis patients.
He said the Ministry of Health is working with all the counties to ensure all Level 4 and 5 hospitals in the devolved regions are equipped with dialysis machines and other requisites for the treatment of chronic diseases.
The health scheme, said the PS, is also working to actualise an emergency chronic care fund to cater for victims of emergencies like road accidents and heart disease, to be admitted and treated without being made to pay for deposits first.
“We are coming up with a fund that will cater for emergency victims, to include admission up to the ICU without demand for a deposit. Their payments will be sorted later for contributors of the Social Health Insurance Scheme,” he said.
Also to be catered for under the emergency fund, even when a contributor is behind in arrears, are surgeries and other conditions that require emergency hospital intervention, he said.
He said the emergency fund will be extended to cater for the old, when they seek treatment, provided they are registered members of the public insurance scheme.
School children who are registered as beneficiaries under their parents and guardians will be treated even when beneficiary accounts have arrears, said the PS.
Under all the levels of the Taifa Care programme, Mr Kimtai said, there is no point at which treatment can be discontinued, even when a patient’s cover is depleted.
He said the government is committed to clearing all debt owed to private and faith-based hospitals so that they can afford to offer treatment to holders of the public health insurance card.
He said the overall aim is to create a public insurance scheme that will compete against private insurance.
Last week, the Cabinet Secretary for Health Deborah Mulongo called on all Members of Parliament to help in popularising the SHA scheme among their electorate so as to make it succeed.
Mulongo, who appeared before MPs in a Speakers’ Kamukunji of both Houses of Parliament, said the electorate stands to benefit more when mass registration is achieved and pleaded with Members to woo them to enlist.
