Reduce rates for informal workers, MPs tell NHIF

The National Assembly’s Committee on Health has asked the national health insurer to drop the Sh500 monthly fee for people in the informal sector. The MPs yesterday asked that the amount be reduced to Sh300, saying the Sh500 was expensive for workers without a steady income.

The committee said it was illogical for the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to tell the ‘mama mboga’ (vegetable vendors) and boda boda operators to pay Sh500 every month to cater for their health needs at a time when people in formal employment who earn over Sh100,000 a month pay a maximum of Sh2,000.

Kitui South MP Rachel Kaki Nyamai. Nyamai, along with other MPs say the highest amount that people should be charged if they don’t have a steady monthly income is Sh300.
(PHOTO: COURTESY

“The committee agrees that the rich must pay for the poor and the payment must be attractive to those who are paying to get more people into the scheme. The payment must be supported through actuarial studies so that we ensure it works,” said Rachel Nyamai (Kitui South).

Addressing a news conference at Parliament Buildings, the legislators said they will review the regulations on NHIF operations to make sure the people in informal sector pay Sh300 a month.

The informal sector is hitherto untapped and NHIF had agreed to have all the people in the sector to ‘volunteer’ payments to the fund. Every person in formal employment surrenders a portion of their salary to NHIF up to a maximum of Sh2,000 every month.

The MPs said anyone whom the NHIF wants to volunteer, but is doing odd jobs, has to pay a maximum of Sh300.

“We do not agree to charging volunteers Sh500; they will pay Sh300 and that is what we told NHIF,” said Nyamai, referring to an agreement reached at a weekend meeting between the fund and the MPs in Mombasa.

The committee sought an explanation from NHIF on why it settled on Sh500 for the workers, but they did not get an actuarial study to back up the figures.

 Benefits package

The MPs then said the highest amount that people should be charged if they don’t have a steady monthly income is Sh300.

“We look forward to a day when NHIF will cover more people so that we can spend less money through out-of-pocket spending on health care. For now, we feel that there’s no clear difference between the volunteers now that the ‘mama mboga’, boda boda operators and retirees are being lumped together with small business operators,” said Nyamai.

The argument is that the small business operators can comfortably afford the Sh500 that the NHIF was charging, but for the vegetable vendors and hawkers, the Sh500 minimum was too steep.

“NHIF has not explained to us how they settled on Sh500. We also want NHIF to be very clear on the benefits package as we feel this is not very clear. People should know what they are paying for,” she said.