Quickly solve health mess
What you need to know:
- The difficulty in accessing health services is hampering a right that all Kenyans are entitled to. The NHIF had, for example, approved Sh315,000 for one patient’s chemotherapy, who is now being required to pay cash for it.
- It is terribly unfair, especially to those who had fully paid their NHIF contributions. The Ministry of Health should devise an interim system using the NHIF cards until the transition is completed.
The pain and suffering of patients due to the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) rollout hitches has been echoed in their moving appeal to President William Ruto to intervene. As they have told the President, for many of them, there is no time to wait.
Since the new system was launched on October 1, the healthcare system has been chaotic. The envisaged gains from the changeover from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) are proving quite elusive.
And suffering the brunt of the confusion are critically ill patients, who need dialysis or other delicate attention. They have been forced to seek alternatives or find the money to pay cash for these life-saving services.
Many patients have missed critical procedures such as chemotherapy, as hospitals demand cash upfront due to the countrywide healthcare mess.
The patients simply do not have the luxury to wait until the government sorts out the bottlenecks as they are being ravaged by killer diseases.
While the President has appealed for patience, saying the new SHIF system will be running efficiently “in a matter of weeks”, many Kenyans remain sceptical.
And digital experts have explained that the costly Sh104.8 billion Integrated Healthcare Information Technology System (IHITS) would have required at least two years to fully set up.
While the Social Health Authority (SHA) is a key part of President Ruto’s ambitious plan to provide universal health coverage to all citizens, those needing urgent care cannot just be ignored.
The difficulty in accessing health services is hampering a right that all Kenyans are entitled to. The NHIF had, for example, approved Sh315,000 for one patient’s chemotherapy, who is now being required to pay cash for it.
It is terribly unfair, especially to those who had fully paid their NHIF contributions. The Ministry of Health should devise an interim system using the NHIF cards until the transition is completed.
