Do not allow NHIF to be private sector cash cow

The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has demonstrated its potential by recording a 43 per increase in income growth to a tidy Sh82.6 billion. This excellent performance in the financial year ended June 2022 was made possible by several enhanced schemes and sponsored programmes.

Though short of the Sh90.5 billion target, it exceeded Sh60 billion in the 2020/21 fiscal year. The national scheme raked in Sh34.4 billion while the statutory contributions amounted to Sh6.9 billion. The total benefits paid out in the 2021-22 financial year were Sh27.94 billion, against a Sh35.33 billion budget. This again proves how useful NHIF can be in mobilising resources for the provision of the essential service.

There is, definitely, a lot of room to do much better.

What many will find disturbing though is that the bulk of these funds have ended up going to private hospitals. While these institutions complement provision of healthcare, the burden is largely borne by public hospitals. Ideally, more resources should be channelled into improving the public healthcare system to give more Kenyans quality medication.

The priority should be curing those afflicted by disease and not enriching the investors in private hospitals. Healthcare is a service at the heart of the nation’s productivity. A sick people cannot be relied upon to work on the farms, offices or run business enterprises to boost national development.

It is encouraging, however, that the key referral hospitals—including Kenyatta National Hospital—which play a pivotal role in the provision of specialised healthcare, received the highest claims over this period. This should help to substantially ease their financial burden. Another key beneficiary is the Linda Mama programme, which supports expectant women, seeing them attended to in hospitals to curb deaths.

But turning the NHIF into a cash cow for the private sector would negate the noble responsibility for which it was set up.