Cost of health care shouldn’t lead to poverty
We desperately need relevant health statistics to understand health economics properly.
What you need to know:
- Doctor consultations, hospital stays, tests, medications and supplements are all expensive, especially if required over a long period of time.
- Many defendants in court cases have cited a loved one who is ill and no opportunities to earn as the catalyst that led them down dangerous paths.
A June 2021 study into Covid-19 bills done by the Kenya Medical Research Institute, a state corporation, found a range from lows of Sh21,359 a day for patients without symptoms, to Sh51,684 a day for those needing intensive care. If one in four Kenyans is living below the poverty line of $1.90 cents a day, or Sh209, these bills are cruelly exorbitant and far beyond any ability to pay.
Kenyans have had to accept as normal the horrible game of chance that lands them or their loved ones the misfortune and costs of falling ill, since the time before Covid.
Doctor consultations, hospital stays, tests, medications and supplements are all expensive, especially if required over a long period of time, and the costs add up, as they do with chronic conditions.
Ongoing costs of dealing with conditions needing lifelong expert management are then put on the shoulders of many who cannot bear them, leading to resource depletion and poverty.
The desperation also has high social costs. Many defendants in court cases have cited a loved one who is ill and no opportunities to earn as the catalyst that led them down dangerous paths.
Vulnerable populations
The health of people within its borders will always be any state’s responsibility. The health of Kenyans should not be down to luck or fate. This is why the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including the right to health-care services, is enshrined in our Constitution.
The specific needs of various vulnerable populations come to mind, such as women, children, the elderly, people living with disabilities, people with mental illnesses, refugees and internally displaced people, adolescents, emergencies and more.
The state, through its ministries, corporations, parliamentary and county health committees, and more, must immediately be held to high, public and direct account by us all. They must answer this question: why is the cost of Kenyan healthcare so punitive for most of us? It should be unthinkable for any politician running for office, any politician in office, and any political party, to display casual ignorance about the costs of the nation’s health, as health directly relates to ability to participate in the political activities of governance.
Accountability around numbers must begin with numbers themselves. We desperately need relevant health statistics to understand health economics properly. We must know the exact cost of our suffering, just like we know the exact amount we owe in infrastructure debt.
What is the average Kenyan hospital bill in each county, in both private and public facilities? What are Kenyans suffering from most? How exactly are Kenyans meeting treatment costs, and what happens when they cannot? The answers to these questions must be discussed publicly. Hospital bills should stop being individual, private sufferings and become a key general concern for us to solve collectively.
The writer is a policy analyst. [email protected]
