KITUI Kenya, Sep 28 – Kitui County government and the National Health Insurance Fund ( NHIF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see 80% of its residents access healthcare under the Universal health Coverage (UHC).
Officials said the MOU will see over 100,00O homesteads benefit under the comprehensive super cover.
Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu said her government will use a co-pay program that will see the county pay 50% of the annual subscription of Sh6,000 to NHIF while the rest will be paid by the listed households.
“60% of Kitui residents are classified as poor and lack means. With this we have a pocket expenditure to ensure affordable health for all,” she said.
Kitui County has 262,000 households with about 79, 320 households insured under various firms which is less than 30.2%.
According to Ngilu, over 60% of Kitui residents are classified as poor and therefore, lack the means to meet daily needs such as health.
“Over 80 % of our people depend on public health facilities and this places a huge demand for our county government to allocate resources to meet their needs,” she said.
“33.6% of annual Kitui budget goes to health but with this MOU we have therefore, decided to set aside 10% of this allocation every year to support our vulnerable households to enrol to UHC through NHIF,” she added.
Ngilu said the MOU will ensure the county government provides health insurance cover for over 85,000 households for the first time ever.
“I believe this will be the first time in our country when such a large number of ordinary people in one county get health insurance. This will be a landmark achievement. We are extremely greatful for president Uhuru Kenyatta who has enabled UHC dream come to life in this country,” she said.
NHIF CEO Peter Kamunyo said the fund is keen to ensure the success of social Universal health coverage across the country.
“It gives me pleasure to be signing the MOU with the county government of Kitui because the spirit of UHC will leave no one behind and the spirit of Universal Health Coverage is to ensure all those who can pay and those who can’t are identified and supported,” said Kamunyo.
He said the fund is focused at relieving Kenyans the burden of high cost of health.
“The cost of healthcare has continued and will continue to increase. This makes us one sickness away from poverty. Indeed it is true because 1 million Kenyans are driven to poverty every year because of catastrophic health expenditure,” he added.
Kamunyo said it is important as the country goes through the process of scaling up UHC.
“Basically what we are saying is that instead of carrying your own risk of health, be covered and the vehicle is NHIF and that way you’ll be able to transfer risk,” said Kamunyo.
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