Francis Muli
All Kenyans above 18 years will be required to start making payments for the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) by the end of the year. All Kenyans above 18 years will be required to pay Sh500 per month or Sh6,000 yearly to be enrolled into the Health Insurance scheme.
NHIF Board chairman Lewis Nguyai said the new law signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta at the beginning of the year would be implemented by the end of the year. The NHIF (Amendment) Act 2022 aims to give all Kenyans access to the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in all healthcare facilities countrywide. Kenyans will be able to access outpatient and inpatient services, maternity, dialysis, cancer treatment and surgery.
“The legislation gives NHIF the mandate to ensure that everyone who is above 18 years takes an NHIF cover. Within the next two weeks, we will have put the regulations in place and before the end of this year, it will be mandatory for all Kenyans above 18 years to have an NHIF cover,” Mr Nguyai said.
Read:Healthcare Providers Mount Pressure On NHIF To Halt Proposed Changes In New Contracts
Nguyai was speaking during the launch of the maternity and theatre wing at the Outspan Teaching and Referral Hospital.
“We were in the process of putting together the regulation but we were taken to court and stopped, until June 30 when we were given the go-ahead. We want all Kenyans to access quality healthcare without paying anything apart from the monthly remittance of Sh500,” he said.
NHIF currently has 32.9 million beneficiaries out of which 14.3 million are principle members and 18.6 are dependents. This represents 69% of Kenya’s 47 million people as a whole.
Only 44.6% of the membership, or 6.3 million people, are active.
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