NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 21 – President William Ruto has defended his health reform plan under Taifa Care citing the need to cater to the poor and vulnerable through Universal Health Coverage.
President William Ruto has reiterated his commitment to providing universal health coverage through his flagship health reform initiative, Taifa Care, saying it is essential to ensure all Kenyans, particularly the poor and vulnerable, have access to quality healthcare services.
Speaking during his State of the Nation address in Parliament on Tuesday, Ruto asserted that Taifa Care is essential to ensure all Kenyans, particularly the poor and vulnerable, have access to quality healthcare services.
“This modern framework ensures that every Kenyan especially the most vulnerable can access quality health care services when they need it the most,” he said.
“The shift from the National Health Insurance Fund model to Taifa Care is fundamental and radical in both scale and character.”
The head of state emphasized that the defunct NHIF system while serving a segment of the population, failed to meet the broader needs of Kenyans.
He explained that NHIF had accumulated billions of shillings in debt due to a misalignment between the contributions made by members and the actual costs of providing healthcare services.
Taifa Care, Ruto explained, aims to address these gaps by creating a more efficient, cost-effective, and inclusive healthcare system.
According to Ruto, one of its core strategies is to gather accurate data on the costs of healthcare-related goods and services to ensure that the system can provide timely, affordable, and high-quality services to the entire population.
The new health insurance model under the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) has been met with criticism from Kenyans who have faulted it for its inefficiency.
SHA unveiled by the government earlier is segmented into three funds namely the Primary Healthcare Fund, the Emergency, Chronic, and Critical Illnesses Fund, and the Social Health Insurance Fund each receiving different allocations from the he
