By Mike Mwaniki
The Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) has lauded President Uhuru Kenyatta’s commitment to roll-out Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the next five years. KHF chairman Dr. Amit Thakker described the move as “courageous, bold and ambitious” saying the private sector supports the provision of quality healthcare for all.
“Before rolling out UHC, national and county governments should ensure that Primary Health Care (PHC) services are prioritised and strengthened at dispensary and health centre levels and all the health facilities are functioning”, he said. Dr. Thakker said health workers should also ensure kindness and empathy are at the core of provision of healthcare services to patients.
KHF is the health sector board of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) whose objective is to promote strategic public— private partnership and work towards achieving national access to quality healthcare. In addition, KHF leadership attends Presidential roundtable as well as Ministerial stakeholders’ roundtable meetings and county stakeholders’ forum.
Dr. Thakker observed that for Kenya to increase insurance coverage from the current 16 per cent to 100 per cent by 2022, there is need to build on multiple, suitable, innovative cost effective medical plans including county medical plans that in turn could be re-insured by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).
“There is need to reform the NHIF and focus on strengthening governance and its operations to ensure it is responsive to the needs of Kenyans… At the same time, there is need to create a regulatory authority that will oversee both public and private insurance plans for Kenyans”. Creating an enabling environment and giving Kenyans a choice of medical plans, Dr. Thakker noted, will spur economic growth.
“There is need for the establishment of a neutral Health Benefits Regulatory Authority (HBRA) which will regulate NHIF, Makueni Care and other insurance schemes which demand for advance payment (promissory note) to ensure that consumers are protected”, he said. He further said there is need to ensure that NHIF is put under pressure to deliver and observe fiscal discipline as mismanagement would result in adverse ripple-effect.
The catastrophic costs due to health bills, Dr. Thakker noted, was inhibiting people from seeking treatment in the country’s health facilities. Experts say achieving UHC means access to essential health services for everyone—including safe, effective and affordable medicines and vaccines—without financial hardship. In April, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki announced an ambitious plan to register close to 8.5 million Kenyans to NHIF this year.
Ms. Kariuki said that the Health Ministry had initiated a rigorous exercise to register all Kenyans under the state social health insurance platform by 2020. Currently, NHIF has enrolled 7.5 million members with 16.5 million beneficiaries. The plan by the Health Ministry is to register another 25 million Kenyans in one year and continue to raise the numbers to 40 million by 2020.
NHIF Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Mwangi said the social health insurer has already laid down plans to increase their brand visibility by using agents like their private competitors to supplement already existing 63 service points and 30 satellite centres. Dr. Thakker announced that the private sector was interested in leasing the 800 unutilised public health facilities in the 47 counties and also allow medical students trained in privately-owned medical institutions to be allowed to undertake training in public health facilities.
“As we embrace UHC, the number of doctors, nurses and other health workers who are trained should be increased to 33 per cent so that we increase the number of trained health workers to 18,000 per year from the current 9,000”. Dr. Thakker also proposed that the local manufacturing of medicines should be enhanced in a bid to lower the cost of the commodities and also ensure that 50,000 new jobs were created annually in the pharmaceutical sector.
