Kenya (Commonwealth) _ Kenya’s President William Ruto has signed controversial legislation that will result in the most significant changes to the health sector in more than 20 years.
His plan focuses on promoting universal healthcare and asks all employees to contribute 2.75% of their pay to a new health fund. The government claims that it will make healthcare more inexpensive and accessible to Kenyans in need.
However, many Kenyans regard it as a new tax and are opposed to it. They claim it is the latest in a series of measures adopted by Mr Ruto, deepening the cost-of-living issue, despite the fact that he won elections last year on a promise to help people’ financial woes.
Some are also concerned that the new healthcare fund, like the current one, will be riddled with corruption, leaving them unable to obtain the health treatments to which they are entitled.
However, parliament has backed Mr Ruto, passing the Social Health Insurance Bill on Tuesday, together with three other health laws. Kenyans already pay between 150 and 1,700 Kenyan shillings ($1; £0.80) per month to a National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
It will be replaced with a new fund in which the minimum payment will be doubled and most salaried people will contribute a bigger proportion of their earnings. With the new law, every Kenyan is required to join the Social Health Insurance Fund, which will replace the NHIF.
According to Mr. Ruto, national health insurance will ensure that any Kenyan may visit a hospital and receive care without financial burden. However, the new legislation do not address what occurs when individuals cannot afford to contribute.
According to Kenya’s Health Minister, Susan Nakhumicha, the new plan is preferable since it “allows Kenyans from all walks of life to contribute according to their income.” She claims that lower-income people are currently paying a bigger percentage of their income than higher-income people.
Employers, who must match their employees’ payments, have argued that the 2.75% deduction is too excessive. They claim that it will harm businesses and exacerbate Kenya’s cost-of-living crisis, which sparked a wave of protests earlier this year.
Mr. Ruto signed the Finance Act in June, another controversial piece of legislation that imposed a 1.5% housing levy payable by both employers and employees to assist the government in providing affordable housing at a time when prices are so high that many urban Kenyans cannot afford to buy homes.
Some health and civil society organizations have also come out against the health plan, claiming that the 2.75% deduction is excessive in light of recent increases in fuel prices and living expenditures. “This rate takes a lot more from distressed salaried citizens, whose incomes support large households of family and services,” claimed the Kenya Faith Based Health Services Consortium in September.
Kenyans will be obliged to register with the proposed National Social Health Insurance Fund in order to receive public health care, and those who do not do so will be denied access.
The government would assist Kenyans who are unable to contribute to the fund with a budget of 26 billion shillings. The new fund would replace the present NHIF, which has lost billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded cash due to corruption, depriving access to healthcare to many paying Kenyans.
Some Kenyans are concerned that the new fund will have more money and would lead to more corruption, while the state will continue to deny them treatment. Critics also fear that, like the current NHIF, the new social healthcare authority will spend the majority of the monies collected on administrative fees, leaving little money for direct healthcare costs.
