The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) will soon be replaced by the National Social Health Insurance Fund (NSHIF).
According to Health CS Susan Nakhumicha, the move would enable every Kenyan to access medical services throughout the country under Universal Health Care.
“Currently, NHIF is already running some schemes that take care of different cohorts of people. We have the one for the elderly, orphaned children, Linda Mama and Edu Afya,” CS Nakhumicha said.
“What we are going to do with the NSHIF is we want to bring the funds together so that we no longer have them in silos. When we have the schemes together, we do fundraising that gives us almost Ksh.12.6 billion.” she added.
Nakumucha noted that the new type of insurance will be similar to establishing a national fundraising campaign to ensure that any capable individual or person contributes to the scheme for the benefit of the other.
“We are now doing the Math to see how much more should the government add so that each and every Kenyan can be able to access health care. We have done a costing and we know with this fundraising, we want to look for funds from elsewhere such as Tobacco Funds, Sports Funds, the money that comes from betting…a fraction of it and put them together to form the basis of NSHIF,” she explained.
She compared the scheme to raising funds in a WhatsApp group or on a social media platform, saying the government was combining various agencies to raise the necessary funds.
“You and I can afford healthcare, when our people are sick, it is you and I in WhatsApp groups raising funds; what about if we do one major fundraising rather than having WhatsApp Groups?” she posed.
Nakhumicha was speaking during the National Cancer Summit in Nairobi.
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