Fund aligns to Uhuru health plan announced during Jamhuri Day

Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu (PHOTO FILE)

NAIROBI, KENYA; Kenya is one of the countries that stands to benefit from Japan’s Sh290 billion (USD 2.9 billion) boon to developing nations to assist in attaining the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced this in Tokyo where the country is hosting the Universal Health Coverage Global Forum, Kenya being represented by Health Cabinet Secretary Dr Cleopa Mailu.

The monies, Abe said, will be used to tackle health issues among young children in developing countries to combat infectious diseases. These are diseases that are transmitted from person to person or through insects like malaria caused by mosquitoes.

This announcement comes just a day after Health Principal Secretary Julius Korir revealed that Kenya has an annual deficit of at least Sh88 billion to attain universal health coverage.

Korir said at the moment, the Treasury can only stretch as far as Sh12 billion. Apart from donors, the rest of the funding is expected to come from households that can afford to pay for their own insurance.

In 2015, Japan through Japan International Corporation Agency (Jica) loaned Kenya Sh3.28 billion to boost its push for universal health coverage, a target group being the elderly and vulnerable persons.

During his Jamhuri Day Address, President Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled health as one of his four goals in the next five years saying he will oversee a major shakeup in the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) which should see Kenyans able to afford health insurance by 2022.

NHIF boss Geoffrey Mwangi in line with the President plans announced a rigorous recruitment of Kenyans to the social insurance fund targeting at least two million persons every year.

Currently, NHIF numbers stand at 7.5 million principal subscribers and 16.8 dependents: “But not all our principal subscribers have declared their dependents which we urge them to do so.”

Mwangi said the insurance major target is 20 million persons as principal subscribers in order to reach the rest of the population who will be roped in as dependents.

“For the formal sector we are good. We have everyone on board. The tricky bit is that it is only the employee who does the contribution,” said Mwangi.

To increase this membership, Mwangi said NHIF will adopt the agent model being used by private insurers, to boost their presence (especially in the rural areas) that stands at 63 service points and 30 satellite branches.

“We want that when you turn, you get our service as close as possible. It is a bit tricky to sell insurance when you are not in contact with people,” said Mwangi?.